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THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
PriTited "by thfi BibliograjMsclies Institut, leipzig.
A BOSJESMAN FAMILY.
THE
HISTORY OF MANKIND
BY
PROFESSOR FRIEDRICH RATZEL
TRANSLATED FROM THE SECOND GERMAN EDITION
BY
A. J. BUTLER, M.A.
WITH INTRODUCTION BY E. B. TYLOR, D.C.L., F.R.S.
WITH COLOURED PLATES, MAPS, AND ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME I
ILontion
MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd.
NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN CO.
1896 ' ' ' '-
^ ' ' t W [: I 'l Y
^.^^^\%l.
INTRODUCTION
When the first edition of Ratzel's Volkerkunde was published In 1885-88 it at
once took its position as a guide-book to the study of Man and Civilization. To
those beginning anthropological work it offered the indispensable outline sketches
of the races of mankind, especially of the savage and barbaric peoples who display
culture in its earlier stages, thus aiding the great modern nations to understand
themselves, to weigh in a just balance their own merits and defects, and even in
some measure to forecast from their own development the possibilities of the
future. So good a judge as Professor Virchow wrote of the work on its first
appearance, that since the time of Prichard and Waitz no such extensive attempt
had been made to represent our knowledge of the lower races of mankind,
immensely augmented as this has been by the researches of travellers, the
exhibition of savages in Europe, and the information opened to the public by the
great museums. The present English translation is from the second German
edition of 1894-95, revised, and condensed from three to two volumes. Special
mention must be made of the illustrations, 1 1 60 in number, which in excellence
surpass those which had hitherto come within the range of any work on Man
intended for general circulation. These, be it observed, are no mere book-
decorations, but a most important part of the apparatus for realising civilization
in its successive stages. They offer, in a way which no verbal description can
attain to, an introduction and guide to the use of the museum collections on
which the Science of Man comes more^and more to deperi^d in working out the
tlieor}rorhurrian devglopm'ent. "Wbrlcs^ which combine this material presentation
of culture with the best descriptions by observant travellers, promote most the
great object of displaying mankind as related together in Nature through^ its very
variation. The Rev. J. G. Wood's Natural History of Man and Dr. Robert
Brown's Races of Mankind have in this way done much to promote anthropology.
The bodily differences between races can only, it is true, be represented by
descriptions and well-chosen portraits, minute physical classification belonging to
a region on-ly^ accessible to anatomists. The classification of peoples by their
languages can only be illustrated by examples chosen from the grammar and
dictionary, so as to make plain the conclusions of comparative philology without
the elaborate detail of a linguistic treatise. But a fuller though less technical
treatment of the culture-side of human life lies more readily open. The material
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
arts of war, subsistence, pleasure, the stages of knowledge, morals, religion, may
be so brought to view that a compendium of them, as found among the ruder
peoples, may serve not only as a lesson-book for the learner, but as a reference-
book for the learned.
In our time there has come to the front a special study of human life through such
object-lessons as are furnished by the specimens in museums. These things used to
r be little more than curiosities belonging to the life of barbarous tribes, itself begin-
ning to be recognised as curious and never suspected of being instructive. Nowa-
days, it is better understood that they are material for the student " looking before
and after." In the collections which enshrine them for perpetual knowledge, they
fulfil in two different ways their illustration of the course of culture. In the way
which is, and probably always must be, the more usual, all the objects which go
to furnish the life of a people are grouped together, each group finding its proper
level. Thus in the Ethnographic Galleries of the British Museum, the general
' condition or " altogether " (to use the useful old-fashioned term) of Australians,
Polynesians, Negroes, Tartars, presents more or less definite groups of objects in
which art and habit have fixed themselves at a consistent level. Where the
rooting-stick appears among the Bushmen as a savage implement, we find in
Africa an iron hoe (vol. i. pp. 88, 89). The South Sea Islander can sketch a rough
map, and ingeniously ties together a little framework of sticks (see vol. i. p. 165)
to serve as sailing directions on his voyages across the ocean ; this bears
no discreditable comparison to the compass and measured chart of civilized
navigation. The group-pictures, which show not only the bodies but the
conditions of a rude race, illustrate this stratification of culture in a suggestive if
rough educational way. Here in the frontispiece of the first volume the Bushman
leans against a rock, which also conveniently supports his knobkerry ; in his hand
is the pipe of antelope-horn for smoking hemp ; one child is splitting a bone for
marrow with a stone implement (which, however, does not belong to modern
times), while another child carries a bull-roarer, as the Berlin street-boys did lately
till the police stopped the whirling of this mystic toy ; the wife carries ostrich-
eggs in a net, and round her neck are teeth strung as charms, while her glass
beads, made probably at Murano, show the beginnings of contact with the civilized
world ; the small bow with its quiver of poisoned arrows, and the water-skin which
makes life possible in the thirsty desert, fills up the foreground of the picture.
Among such rude tribes the simplicity of life is such that from a group like this,
or the picture of a farm among the Igorotes of the Philippine Islands (Plate at
p. 393), which shows these rude negritos engaged in their various occupations,
j something like a real representation of their life as a whole is possible. Mbre
advanced states of civilization become too complex for this to be any longer possible.
^ Among barbaric and much more among civilized peoples, a mere trophjT^
ordinary weapons and utensils {e.g. Plate at p. 232) is enough to fill the picture,
and life has to be divided into many departments to give even an idea of what
useful and artistic objects belong to each. In ethnographic collections, where the
INTRODUCTION
productions of a tribe or nation are grouped locally or nationally together, the
student of culture has before him the record of similar human nature and
circumstance working so uniformly as to present in each class of objects evident
formative principles, developed in various degrees. He finds, or hopes by further
research to find, in every such class courses of gradual_ invention resembling
growth. Thus among the implements of different regions, the withe-bound stone
hatchet of the Australian takes an early place in the series among whose later
members are the bronze hatchet of Egypt and the steel axe of modern Europe.
So among means of literary record, the picture-writing of the American Indian
presents a lower form than the mingled pictures and phonetic symbols of ancient
Egypt, which again lead on to alphabetic writing. At Oxford, the Pitt-Rivers
Collection in the University Museum is devoted to the material evidence of the
laws of development of art, custom, and belief, to investigate which by means of
specimens brought together from all accessible regions and ages, and arranged in
series according to their form and purpose, has been one of the lifelong labours of
the founder. The working of such a method may in some degree be shown from
the illustrations ojjthe^present work. The Damara bow, though no longer carried
as a weapon, retains the purpose of a musical instrument which is gripped by the
teeth and the tense bowstring struck with a stick ; other tribes improve this
primitive stringed instrument by fastening to the wood a hollow gourd or similar
resonator to increase the sound, and from some such stage, by making the bow and
resonator in one piece and stretching a series of strings across the bow, there arises
the African harp, a typical form representing the primitive harp and lute forms of
the world (illustrations of this will be given in the next volume). Not indeed that
such progressive improvement is the sole rule, for degeneration is active also,
as when low culture leads to inferior adaptation of a known type. It has been
thought that the rude wooden crossbow of the Fans of the Gaboon (see vol. i.
p. 86) represents an early rude stage in the development of the weapon, but it is
on the contrary a feeble copy of the arbalest carried by the Portuguese of the
sixteenth century, and thus interesting as an example of degeneration.
In a work whose value depends so largely on its illustrative pictures, decorative
art must be conspicuous. It is well that it should be so, opening out, as it does,
an important problem which we are obliged in great measure to deal with empiri-
cally from imperfect knowledge of its principles. Even practically, the civilized world
has no exclusive possession of the secret of decorative art. There abound in our
shops costly things made and sold for little other purpose than to be pretty,
which are nevertheless unsatisfactory to the educated eye. On the other hand,
savages or barbarians, though looked down upon as of low intelligence, produce
objects which allmust admit to show artistic taste. The reader will find proof
sufficient of this in the pictures of carvings and mats from Papua and Polynesia
(pp. 241, 244, 247, 249, 262). Now what is it that makes some lines beautiful,
and one more beautiful than another ? It will be said in answer that beauty of out-
line dependFon boldness, firmness, and evident intention in^ drawing, which no doubt
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
is partly true, but some lines are stiff and ugly, some flowing and elegant, and again
much stiff ornament is admirable, and flowing patterns may flow clumsily. We may
respect Hogarth for attempting the problem of the line of beauty, for with fuller
knowledge the moderns may succeed where he failed. The more types of tasteful
ornamentation in varied styles can be stored in our minds the nearer will be the
approach to its understanding. It is encouraging to consider what progress has
been made of late toward solving not so much indeed the direct problem of
decorative beauty, as the intermediate problem of the origin and meaning oT
ornament. The researches of General Pitt-Rivers on the gradual transformation
of human figures into ornamental designs, and the derivation of coil, wave, and
step patterns of cultured art from realistic representations of cords and plaitings,
gave an impulse to this interesting study which has continued to be worked out
in the museum bearing his name, with added series such as ^Mr. Everar^ im
Thurn^ pegals or baskets made by the natives of British Guiana, where the
plaited pictures of birds and monkeys dwindle into graceful patterns, unmeaning
unless their derivation is known. The Evolution oj Decorative Art by Mr. Henry
Balfour, the curator of the Pitt-Rivers MuseUriT; should be known to all students
taking up this attractive line of research. Dr. Ratzel, whose feeling for orna-
mental design is very definite, has reproduced many instructive objects, among
which mention shall only be made here of the Sandwich Island calabash slung in
a carrying-net, placed close by two other calabashes without nets, but appropriately
decorated with patterns which, according to the island habit, are conventionalised
pictures of the absent network (vol. i. p. 243). Such evidence goes far to abolish
the old-fashioned idea that the patternswhich have been the pleasure of ages
were devised by ingenious artists out of their inner consciousness. Looking at
them_as originally derive_d_from real objects, we jee none the less how they
develop into variety, so that, notwithstanding unity of principle, eadi tribe or
district tends to form patterns of its own, which again being characteristif,
are patriotically encouraged as local badges. Thus every Melanesian and Poly-
nesian knows which island a mat or carving comes from, just as in Switzerknd
outlying villages are still known by their special embroidery. When one of
these populations, savage or civilized, is destroyed or reformed into uniformity"^
with the general fashion of the country, a local school vanishes, and even~tiie~-
examples of its productions disappear. So natural is this that^ it is a pleasant
surprise when they come back sometimes^ from a hiding-place. ft~" broughPback
to me such a memory when, in this book (vol. i. p. 256), I opened on the cut of
the " covered vessel in shape of a bird, from the Pelew Islands." About 1880
I had chanced to go to the county parish of Holcombe Rogus in Devonshire to
pay an afternoon visit to the vicar, Mr. Wills. A remark of mine as to a stone '
implement on the mantelpiece led to the unexpected remark that there were'
things upstairs from the Pelew Islands. When I protested that nothing from"
thence had come to England since the time when Captain Wilson brought over
" Prince Lee Boo," whose sad story is told in the once familiar poem, it was
INTRODUCTION
answered that the late Mrs. Wills was of Captain Wilson's family, and had in-
herited his curiosities. Before that, two generations of children had played havoc
with them, but in the attic there were still the great bird-bowl and the inlaid
wooden sword, and the rupak or bone bracelet, that prized ornament of chiefs,
with other familiar objects figured in Keate's book. I represented that they ought
to be in the national collection, and not long after, Mr. Wills, on his death-bed,
ordered that they should be sent to me. They duly took their deserved places
in the ethnographic department of the British Museum, where no doubt they will
long outlast the amiable but hopelessly degenerate islanders, the picture of whose
social decay has been drawn with such minute faithfulness by Kubary.
^In understanding the likeness which pervades the culture of all mankind, the
great difficulty is to disentangle the small part of art and custom which any
people may have invented or adapted for themselves, from the large part which
has been acquired by adoptirig from foreigners whatever was seen to suit their own
circumstances. Original invention and modification of culture must take place
somewhere, but to localise it in geography and chronology is so perplexing that
anthropologists are fain to fall back, especially as to the more sirnple and primitive
developments, on the view that they arose each in some one centre, or possibly
more than one, thence propagating jhemselyes over the world. Who shall say,
for instance, where and by whom were begun the use of the club and spear which
are found everywhere, and of the bow, which is found almost everywhere ? The
problem becomes mqre_ manageable as it passes to special varieties of these
simple weapons, and to appliances whkh are more complex and elaborate. For
though as yet no definite rule has been ascertained for distinguishing similar in-
ventions which may have arisen separately, from the travelling of one invention
from place to place, yet at any rate experience and history lead us to judge that
the more complex, elaborate, and unfamiliar an art or institution is, the more i
right we have tb"c6nsider that it was only devised once, and travelled from this '
its first home to wherever else it is found. History often helps us to follow
these_lines of movement which have spread civilization over the world, while
on the other hand_lhe tracing of thearts through the regions of the world is
among the most important aids_ to early history. Thus in the case of the
Bushmen already mentioned, mere inspection suggests that the glass beads which
reach them through the traders are to be traced through an art history leading
back through Phoenicia to Egypt, while the dakka-pipe is a record not of native
African" invenfion, but of the migration of the deleterious habit of hemp-smoking
westward and southward probably^ from Central Asia. It is well for the student
to cultivate the habit, of which this book will give many opportunities, of
endeavouring to separate, in the inventory of life among any people, the pro-
ducts of native invention from the borrowed appliances of the foreigner. Thus
in the war-dance of the Sioux, the guns and iron-headed tomahawks bartered
from the white trader figure beside the more genuine drum and stone-headed
club ; and the swords and daggers of the African countries show at a glance
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
the influence of Asia which has spread with and beyond the range of the
Moslem religion.
}/ For the study of eariier^ stages of^ social Hfe, and even of morals and religion,
with their liTanifold bearing on the practical' problems of modern life,jherejs
no more useful preparation than, familiarity with the modes in which m^to^
Trt^and' r^esentation are developed and propagated. The same underlying
hmnan instinct, the same constancj^f hmp_anj-aculty_ through low and high
stages, the same pliability^' life lolhe needs of outward circumstances, which
'precedes 'the~cultured state where circumstances have to yield to the needs oF
man, thesame adaptation of artificial means suggested by nature, the same
.copying by the whole tribe of the devices^ whkh individuals have started,_and
then their wider diffusion by one tribe copying from another — these actions go on
\ throughout the human race, and thejrinciples we learn from mere things may
guide us in the study of men. The habit of_constant recourse to actual objects is
of inestimable use to us in the more abstract investigation of ideas. Its scope is
limited j y^t as we have to depehd'briefly on verbal description for our knowledge
of the habits of distant and outlandish peoples, their social condition, their rules
of right and wrong, their modes of government, and their ideas of religion, the
sight of the material things among which such institutions are worked out gives
a reality and sharpness of appreciation which add much to the meaning of words.
The rude hut of Tierra del Fuego, inhabited by the natives occupied among their
scanty appliances, brings the race before us in a framing to which we adjust,
almost as travellers among them may do, our ideas of the life, morals, and
religion of the isolated savage family. So the models or pictures of the huge
village-houses of Malays or the higher American Indians enable the spectator to
understand the social condition of the communities of grouped families, patriarchal
or matriarchal, to which brotherhood and vengeance, communal agriculture andT
tribal war, naturally belong. Thus in every djrection„thfi_ material furniture of
life, taken in its largest sense, gives clues to the understanding of institutions as
tools do of the arts they belong to. The paraphernalia of birth, marriage, and
death among the American Indians, the backboard of the papoose, the whip of
the initiation ceremony, the beads and paint of the bride, the weapons and orna-
ments sacrificed for the use of the dead man's soul, tell in outline the story of their
rude life. The great totem-system, which binds together in bonds of amity the tribes
of the barbaric world, takes material shape in the pictured and sculptured animals
which decorate the mats and the roof-posts of British Columbia with commemoration
of the myths of divine ancestors. In half the countries of the world the concep-
tion of the soul and of deity is best to be learnt from the rude human figures or
idols in which these spirits take their embodiment (see pp. 301 sqq). To learn what
the worshippers say and do to the idols, and what the indwelling spirits of the idols
are considered to do to the worshippers, is to obtain a more positive knowledge
of the native theology than is to be had from attempts to extract scholastic defini-
tions from the vague though not unmeaning language of the savage priest.
INTRODUCTION
It is especially because the present work comes under the class of popular
illustrated books that it is desirable to point out that this does not detract from
its educational value, but on the contrary makes it good for providing a sjoHd
foundation in ■ anthropological study. To discuss the theoretical part,, attacking
or defending Professor Ratzel's views on the diffusion of the human species over
the globe, the classification of mankind by race and language, and tfe geography
of civilization, would be to go outside the purpose of this introduction. Still less
is it the dul;y of the introducer to seek out errors. He has simply to recommend
a foreign book, pointing out_to what classes of readers, an3 for what purposes, it
is likely to be useful. It should, however, be clearly understood that great as the
progress of anthropology has been during the last half-century, yet, as in other
subjects~modern~aFl:o their scientific form and rank, the collection of the evidence
has not yet approached completion, nor has the theory consolidated jnto dogmatic
form^ In the next century, to judge from its advance in the present, it will have
largely attained to the realm of positive law, and its full use will then be acknow-
ledged not only as interpreting the past history of mankind, but as even laying
down the firsf stages of curves _o£ movement which will describe and affect the
courses of future opinions and in^kutions. This will be a gain to the systema-
tising of human life and the arrangement of conduct on reasonable and scientific
"principles. It istrue that such results may be accompanied by some dwindling
of the adventurous interest^which belongs tojhe early periods of a science, and
possibly the anthropologists of the next century, rich in theoretical and practical
knowledge shaped into law and rule, may look back to our days of laborious
acquisition of evidence and enjoyment of new results with something of the regret
felt by the denizen of a colonial town in looking back to the time when settled
occupation was only beginning to encroach on the hunters' life in the wild land.
EDWARD B. TYLOR.
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
Mr. James Payn has recently compared the translator's functions to those of the
typewriter, and in many respects the comparison holds good. Both are expected,
like little boys in the nursery code of etiquette, to be '' seen and not heard " ; that
is to say, each is expected to reproduce, in his own medium, what is laid before
him in another, and say nothing about it. However, the present translator, with
some diffidence, craves leave for a moment to depart from this rule. One fault
leads to another, and having on a few occasions in the body of the work ventured,
as the merest outsider, to append an illustration drawn from his own reading or
experience, in confirmation or otherwise of Professor Ratzel's views and statements,
he is almost compelled to make himself " heard " once more, if only to deprecate
reproof for what, now that he looks back on it, seems to have been an impudent
intrusion into other people's domain. It appears to be held in many quarters at
the present day that a man cannot know anything about a subject unless he
knows nothing about any other ; and the " expert " is perhaps justly intolerant
of Margites.
On one other point a word of apologia must be said. A fashion has sprung
up among the learned of spelling barbarous names according to a system of their
own, made it would seem in Germany, but so far as can be judged from the
present work, intended chiefly for English use. In this matter a distinction has
to be made. In names "transliterated" from a language with old-established
written symbols differing from our symbols, it may be necessary on philological
grounds to adopt a conventional system of equating letter with letter, even at the
risk of suggesting to the English reader a sound quite unlike that of the original
word, or of breaking through an old tradition. It may be all right, for instance,
to spell the name of a well-known cricketer so as at once to make the ordinary
newspaper -reader pronounce his iirst syllable as if it rhymed to " man," and
disguise the fact that he is namesake to the Lion of the Punjab. But in the
case of names which till Europeans heard them never had occasion to be spelt,
surely in a popular work it is best, whenever possible without great violation of
custom, to give the form which most nearly conveys the sound from an English eye
to an English ear. It would be pleasant indeed to write Otaheite and Owhyhee,
stamped as they are with the seal of literature ; but here we have surrendered to
France, and it is hopeless to revive the old forms. In some cases, however, we
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
are still at liberty to consider our own countrymen. Why, for instance, write
Tunguses, which nine Englishmen out of ten will rhyme to " funguses " ; when by
following our fathers and writing Tungooses we at least give some approximation
to the right sound ? Again, why write ShiUuks for the people whom Gordon
reasonably called Shillooks ? Other nations would not hesitate. A German
writes Schilluk ; a Frenchman doubtless Chilouques ; an Italian, Scilucchi ; a
Spaniard, if he ever needs to mention them, Xiluques. Why are Englishmen
alone not to keep within their own " sphere of influence " in this matter ? Forms
like tapu and tatu may be all very well in scientific periodicals, but taboo and
tattoo are the English words, and should be used in English books.
In conclusion, the translator has to express his best thanks to two experts, who
have very kindly revised the proofs. Mr. Henry Balfour performed this most neces-
sary office for the first two or three parts, and when he was incapacitated by illness
for continuing the work, Mr. H. Ling Roth was good enough to come to the
rescue. Thanks to his careful superintendence, it may be hoped that few errors
remain in the text. He is not responsible for the spelling of names, nor for
mistakes in the descriptions of the cuts — about some of which Professor Ratzel
appears to have been misinformed. These will mostly be found corrected in the
index.
CONTENTS
BOOK I
Principles of Ethnography
SECTION PAGE
1. The Task of Ethnography ... ... 3
2. Situation, Aspect, and Numbers of the Human Race . 5
3. The Position of Natural Races among Mankind 14
4. Nature, Rise, and Spread of Civilization . . 20
5. Language . . -30
6. Religion . . ... 38
7. Science and Art . . . 65
8. Invention and Discovery . . .76
9. Agriculture and Cattle-breeding 87
10. Clothing and Ornament . 93
11. Habitations . . . 106
y^2. Family and Social Customs . .114
13. The State . . . . 129
BOOK II
The American-Pacific Group of Races
A. — The Races of Oceania
1. General Survey of the Group ... . . 145
2. The Races of the Pacific and their Migrations .... 155
• 3. Physical Qualities and Intellectual Life of the Polynesians and Micronesians . 185
4. Dress, Weapons, and Implements of Polynesians and Micronesians . . 195
5. The Negroid Races of the Pacific and Indian Oceans . 214
6. Dress and Weapons of the Melanesians . . 223
7. Labour, Dwellings, and Food in Oceania . 238
8. The Family and the State in Oceania . , 267
9. Religion in Oceania . . 300
B. — The Australians
10. Australia .... . . 333
11. Physical and Mental Character of the Australians . . . . 337
12. Dress, Weapons, and other belongings of the Australians . . 349
13. The Family and Society in Australia . . 365
14. The Tasmanians . ... . 380
15. Religion of the Australians 383
C— Malays and Malagasies
16. The Malay Archipelago . . • ... 391
17. Bodily Conformation and Intellectual Life of the Malays ... 393
18. Dress, Weapons, and other Property of the Malays . . 405
19. The Malay Family, Community, State . . . 437
20. The Malagasies . 45^
21. The Religion of the Malays 4^7
Note. — In some cases the descriptions of Figures given in the following List will be found to
differ from those which occur in the text. Where this is so the List may be taken as
embodying corrections which will ultimately be made in the text.
ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOLUME I
MAP
Map of the Races of Oceania and Australasia
To face page 145
COLOURED PLATES
A BosjESMAN Family . . . . .
Weapons, Utensils, and Ornaments of American Indians
Polynesian Weapons and Costome .......
Pattern of Polynesian Tapa. (From Cook's Collection in the Ethnographical Museum,
Vienna) . . . . ...
Weapons and Utensils from Melanesia and Micronesia
An Australian Family-Party from New South Wales
SowEK ; A Pile-Village on the North Coast of New Guinea. (After Raffray)
IGORROTE Farm in Luzon (Philippines). (From a water-colour drawing by Dr. Hans Meyer)
Malay Fabrics and Weapons . .....
Frontispiece
To face page 65
155
19s
232
294
344
393
427
ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT
PAGE
Eskimo bow made of bones. (British Museum) ........ 6
Fijian double canoe. (From a model in the Godefifroy Collection, Leipzig) .... 8
Sandili, king of the Gaikas ; showing the Semitic type of the Kaffirs. (From a photograph by G.
Fritsch) ............ 13
A Galla monk : Hamitic or Semitic blend. (From a photograph in the collection of Pruner Bey) . 13
Young girl of the Mountain Daniara tribe. (From a photograph belonging to the Barmen Mission) . 16
Steel Axe of European make with old bone handle, from New Zealand. (Christy Collection) . . 18
Ainu beside one of their store-huts. (From a photograph in the pgssession of Freiherr von Siebold,
Vienna) ............ 19
Ambuella Drum. (After Serpa Pinto) ......... 21
Igorrote Drum from Luzon. (From the collection of Dr. Hans Meyer) . . . 21
Queensland Aborigines. (From a photograph) ...... .23
Indian Mirror from Texas. (Stockholm Ethnographical Museum) . . . . -29
Owner's marks : the upright column from the Ainu (after Von Siebold) ; the others, rudimentary writing
from the Negroes of Lunda (after M. Buchner) . . . . • • 3^
Melanesian sea spirit, from San Christoval. (After Codrington) .... 39
Fetish in Lunda : purpose unknown, perhaps to avert lightning. (After Buchner) . . 42
Entrance to a fetish hut in Lunda. (After Buchner) ...•••• 43
Wooden idol from the Niger. (Museum of the Church Missionary Society) . . . -44
A mummy wrapped in clothing, from Ancon. (After Reiss and Stubel) . . . • 45
Idols from Hermit Island. (Ethnological Museum, Berlin) ...... 46
supposed idols representing souls, from Ubudjwa. (After Cameron) ... .46
3rave of a Zulu chief. (After G. Fritsch) .... ... 48
b
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Fish-headed idols from Easter Island. (Christy Collection)
Magicians of the Loango Coast. (From a photograph by Dr. Falkenstein)
Dice and amulets of a Bamangwato magician. (Ethnographical Museum at Munich)
Masks from New Ireland — one-eighth of real size. (Berlin Museum of Ethnology)
Cemetery and sacred tree in Mbinda. (After Stanley) . ...
Boat-coffin from Timorlaut. (From a model in the Ethnographical Museum, Dresden)
Ornament on coco-nut shell, from Isabel in the Solomon Islands. (After Codrington) .
Piece of bamboo with carvings, from the New Hebrides. (After Codrington) .
Plaited hat of the Nootka Indians, showing eye-ornament. (Stockholm Ethnographical Museum)
Carved clubs from Lunda. (Buchner collection in the Munich Ethnographical Museum)
Tobacco-pipe carved out of slate, from Queen Charlotte Islands, British Colombia. (Berlin Museum of
Ethnology) ... ...
New Zealand tobacco-pipe. (Christy Collection)
Ornamental goblet from West Africa. (British Museum)
Chains made of walrus-teeth, from Aleutia. (City Museum, Frankfort O. M.) . . . .
Kaffir fire-sticks, for producing fire by friction — one-fourth real size. (Museum of the Berlin Mission)
Wooden shield with picture-writing, perhaps a chief's breast-plate, from Easter Island. (Christy Col-
lection) . .........
Human figure and medusa in walrus-ivory, from (?) Tahiti. (Vienna Ethnographical Museum) .
Shell and bone fish-hooks from Oceania. The larger one on the right from the north-west coast of
America. (Vienna Ethnographical Museum) ...
Weapons set with sharks' teeth, from the Gilbert Islands. (Munich Ethnographical Museum) .
Monbuttu tobacco-pipe carved in wood and ornamented with copper wire — one-tenth real size. (Christy
Collection) . . .......
Carved and painted figure from Dahomey. (Berlin Ethnographical Museum)
Zanza, a musical instrument used over a great part of Central and South Africa .
Fan warrior with crossbow. (After Du Chailhi) ........
Stick used by Bushmen in digging roots, and stone weights for the same. (Berlin Museum of Ethnology)
Loango negress at field-work. (From a photograph by Dr. Falkenstein) ....
Iron hoe from Kordofan. The blade is also used as currency— one-eighth real size. (Christy Collection)
Axe of turtle-bone. A label pasted on this, in writing of the time of Captain Cook, describes it as from
the Friendly Islands. (British Museum) . .
Woman of the Azandeh, or Nyam-Nyams. (From a photograph by Richard Buchta) .
Princess of Unyoro, dressed in bark-cloth. From a photograph by Richard Buchta)
^'iIlage chief of the Loango, with wife and dignitary. (From a photograph by Dr. Falkenstein)
Cap made of a palm-spathe, from Brazil. (Munich Ethnographical Museum)
Bawenda children belonging to a mission school. (From a photograph in the possession of Dr. Wange-
niann, Berlin) .....
Fur and bird-skin clothing of the Ainu. (Collection of Baron von Siebold, Vienna)
Woman of New South Wales. (From a photograph in the possession of Lieutenant von Bulow, Berlin)
Leg ornaments of dogs' teeth, and shell armlet, from Hawaii. (Vienna Ethnographical Museum)
Sandal from Unyoro. (After Baker)
I, 2, Stone lip-plugs ; 3, 6, necklaces ; 4, armlet, worn by the Jur tribes ; 5, armlet ; "7, head-dress of
the Shulis. (Vienna Ethnographical Museum) . . . _
Irenga arm-ring, with sheath-one-fourth real size. (Vienna Ethnographical Museum)
I. Paddle-shaped clubs, probably from Fiji ; and carved adzes, as carried by chiefs, from the Hervey
Islands (Munich Ethnographical Museum). 2. Dagger for attaching to the upper arm, from
Lagos (Christy Collection, London) ....
Modes of hairdressing, Lovale. (After Cameron)
V,'c5t African body-tattooing. (From a drawing by Pechuel-Loesche)
West African mode of filing the teeth. (From a drawing by the same)
I. Tortoise-shell combs from Pelew-one-half real size (Kubary Collection, Berlin). 2. Azandeh or
Nyam-Nyam shield— one-tenth real size (Vienna Ethnographical Museum)
Caves of the Bushmen. (After Fritsch) . .
Tree-dwellings in South India. (After Jagor)
Fishing village on the Mekong. (From a photograph) ...
The so-called '•■ Dwarf's House '" at Chichen-Itza. (After Charnay)
House in Central Sumatra. (After Veth)
Village on a tongue of land, Lake Tanganyika. (After Cameron) '.
A Zulu family. (From a photograph in the possession of Dr. Wangemann)
Interior of a house in Korido, New Guinea. (After Raftray)
Ashantee drinking cups of human skulls. (British Museum)
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Human bone in the fork of a branch ; a cannibal memento from Fiji. (Leipzig Museum of Ethnology) 129
Zulu chief in full war-dress. (From a photograph in the possession of Dr. Wangemann) . . 130
The Basuto chief Secocoeni with his court. (From a photograph in the possession of Dr. Wangemann) 132
A Dakota chief (From a photograph) . . ...... 133
Articles belonging to Dyak head-hunters : — i. Shield ornamented with human hair; 2. Sword and knife ;
3. Skull with engraved ornament and metal plate ; 4. Basket to hold a skull, i and 2 probably
from Kutei ; 3 and 4 from W. Borneo. (Munich Museum) . . . 135
Kingsmill Islander in full armour. (Berlin Museum of Ethnology) . 137
Lango chief and magician. (From a photograph by Richard Buchta) . . .138
Insignia, ornamental weapons, and drums from the Southern Congo territory . -139
Polynesian clubs and insignia of rank . . facing 145
Araucanian man and woman. (From a photograph) . . 146
Bakairi girl from the Kulishu river. (After Dr. R. von den Steinen) .... 148
Maori girl. (From photograph in the possession of Dr. Max Buchner) . . 149
Men of Ponape in the Carolines. (From a photograph in the Godeffroy Album) 150
Boy of New Ireland. (From a photograph) . ... 151
Man of New South Wales. (From a photograph) . . . . 152
Dyak woman of Borneo. (From a photograph in the Damann Album) . . 153
Bread-fruit true [Artocarpus incisus) : (a) inflorescence, {b) fruit . .156
Ta.ro {Caladht?n esculentatn) — one-half natural size . . . . . • iS7
Sepulchral monument in Ponape, Caroline Islands. (From a photograph in the Godeffroy Album) . 160
Outrigged boat. New Britain. (From a model in the Godeffroy Collection, Leipzig) . . . 161
Boat of the Mortlock Islands, with outrigger and sail of rush-matting. (After a model in the Godeffroy
Collection) ....... ... 162
Boat of Nine, Savage. Islands. (After a model in the Godeffroy Collection) 163
Boat of the Hermit Islands. (From the same) . . . 163
Wooden baler, New Zealand — one-sixth real size. (British Museum) 164
Wooden baler. New Zealand — one-fifth real size. (British Museum) . 164
Wooden baler, New Guinea — one-fifth real size. (British Museum) . . 165
Stick chart from the Marshall Islands. (Godeffroy Collection) .... . 165
Boat of the Luzon Tagals. (From a model in Dr. Hans Meyer's Collection, Leipzig) 169
Sumatran /ii-a/iz«. (From a model in the Munich Ethnographical Museum) . . 170
Carved boat from New Zealand ; actual length 8 ft. 2 in. (Berlin Museum of Ethnology) . -175
I. God of dances, in the form of a double paddle, Easter Island ; 2. Toothed club from Tutuila ; 3.
Ancient club from Tonga ; 4, 5. Short clubs from Easter Island. (Berlin Museum of Eth-
nology) . . . ...... 176
Thakombau, the last king of Fiji. (From a photograph in the possession of Herr Max Buchner) . 177
Rattan cuirass, throwing-sticks of dark wood, and bark belt, from Kaiser Wilhelm's Land. (Berlin
Museum) . . . . . . . 181
Axes from the D'Entrecasteaux Islands — one-eighth real size. (Christy Collection) . 182
Carved wooden plaques, used as stamps, from the Fiji Islands. (Godeffroy Collection) . 183
Jade battle-axes and jade hatchet, insignia of chiefs, from New Caledonia. (Christy Collection) 184
Samoan woman. (From a photograph in the Godeffroy Album) . . . 186
Women of the Gilbert Islands and Marshall Islands. (Godeffroy Album) . . . 187
A Tongan. (Godeffroy Album) . . 188
A man of Rotuma. (Godeffroy Album) .... 188
A man of Pelew, and a man of Yap in the Carolines. (Godeffroy Album) . . 189
Dressed skull, from the Marshall Islands. (Godeffroy Collection) . . . 190
Bamboo flutes from Tahiti and Hawaii. (British Museum) . 191
Dancing stilts, from the Marquesas. (Munich Ethnographical Museum) . . 192
I. Paddles used at dances, from Easter Island — one-thirteenth real size (Berlin Museum of Ethnology).
2. Wooden dancing-stilts, from the Marquesas — one-tenth real size (Christy Collection) . . 193
Tattooed Maoris. (From a photograph in the possession of Herr Max Buchner) . . . 196
Tattooing instruments from the Friendly Islands — one-third real size. (British Museum) . 197
A man of Ponape in the Carolines. (From a photograph in the Godeffroy Album) . 198
Breastplate of shell with sling of human hair — one-fourth real size. (Christy Collection) . . 199
I. Woman of Ponape. 2. Woman of the Paumotu Islands. (From photograph in the Godeffroy Album).
3. Women of the Society Islands. (From photograph in the Damann Album) . . 200
Samoan lady with hair dressed high. (From the Godeffroy Album) . . . 201
Man of the Ruk Islands. (From the Godeffroy Album) . . . . 203
Combs from Tonga — one-fourth real size. (British Museum) . . . 203
Bone comb from New Zealand — one-third real size. (British Museum) ..... 203
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
PAGB
Man of the Ruk Islands. (From the Godefifroy Album) . . . . 204
Coco and Sago Palms ........ . ■ 205
Obsidian axes from Easter Island— one-third real size. (British Museum) . . . .207
Polynesian implements : i. Axe from Hawaii — one-sixth real size. 2. Adze with carved helve, probably
from Hervey Group or Paumotu Islands. 3, 4. Hatchets from the Marquesas and Society Islands
— one-sixth real size. 5. Obsidian spear-head from Easter Island — one-third real size. 6. Weapon
or implement from Hawaii — one-fourth real size, (i, 3, 4, 6, Christy Collection; 2, S, British
Museum) ............ 208
JIaori chiefs staCF and walking-sticks — one-eighth real size. (Christy Collection) . . .209
I. Quiver and arrow, said to be from the Society Islands — one-eighth real size (Christy Collection.)
2. Pin used in weaving, from New Zealand — two-sevenths real size (British Museum). 3. Spear
set with sharks' teeth, from the Gilbert Islands — one-fifteenth real size (Munich Ethnographical
Museum). 4. Saw, said to be used also as dagger, of ray-spine, from Pelcw— one-third real
size (Berlin Museum) . . . . . . . . . .210
I. Wooden swords from Pelew Islands — one-fifth real size (British Museum). 2. Bow and arrow
from the Friendly Islands — one-third real size (Christy Collection). 3. Saw of ray-spine, said to
be from Pelew — one-third real size (British Museum.) 4. Bone arrow-head — real size (Christy
Collection) ....... . ■ 211
Hawaiian wicker-work helmet — one-fourth real size. (Berlin Museum) ..... 212
Small weapons with sharks' teeth from Tonga, dagger and baler from Hawaii, and gourd bottle from
New Caledonia. (Vienna Museum.) ......
(1-3) Necklaces of shell and beans, with limpet-shells. (4 and 5) Ear-pendants, with dolphin's teeth,
(6 and 7) Ear-buttons of whale's tooth. (8) Necklace of tortoise-shell. (9) Neck ornament
(10) Necklace. (11) Wooden fillet for the head. (12) Ear-button made of a ray's vertebra,
(13, 14) Armlets of black wood and whale's tooth. (15) Neck ornament. (16) Necklace of
shell-disks and whale's tooth. (1-7, Marquesas ; 8 and 15, Friendly Islands ; 9, Hervey Islands
10, II, Society Islands ; 12, Easter Island; 13, 14, Hawaii; 16, Nukuor. )
New Guinea girl. (From a photograph in the possession of Herr W. Joost, Berlin)
Man of New Ireland. (From the Godeffroy Album)
Fijian lady. (From Godeffroy Album) ... ...
Fijian gentleman. (From Godeffroy Album) ...
Woman of the Anchorites Islands. (From the Godeffroy Album)
Woman of the Anchorites Islands. (From the Godeffroy Album)
Musical instrument from New Ireland— one-third real size. (Godeffroy Collection, Leipzig)
I. Spatula for betel-lime from New Guinea — one-half real size. 2. Drum from Pigville in New Guinea
—one-eighth real size (Christy Collection). 3. Drums from Ambrym in the New Hebrides
(after Codrington) ........
Carved coco-nut from New Guinea — one-half real size. (Christy Collection)
New Hebridean ornament (enlarged) .....
Bit of etched design on a coco-nut, from Isabel Island in the Solomons. (After Codrino-ton)
Wigs of human hair worn in battle, from Vanna Levu. (Frankfort City Museum)
Head-dress like an eye-shade from New Guinea— one-fifth real size. (British Museum)
Fiji warrior in a wig. (From the Godeffroy Album)
Nose-ornament, breastplate, and arm-ring of boar's tusks, from New Guinea— one-eighth real size!
(Christy Collection) ••■•..
Shell plaques for adorning the breast and forehead. (Christy Collection)
Weapons from the Admiralty Islands. (Christy Collection)
New Caledonian clubs and a painted dance club from the New Hebrides. (Vienna Museum)
I. Bow from the Solomon Islands (Berlin Museum). 2. Bow and arrows from North-west New Guinea
—one-tenth real size (Christy Collection). 3. Arrow-heads from the Solomon Islands (Godeffroy
Collection, Leipzig) ■ • . . .
Dagger of cassowary bone, from North-west New Guinea— one-fourth real size. " (Christy Collection) ' 234
I. Carved dance-shield from East New Guinea-one-fifth real size. 2. Shield from Teste in New Guinea
— one-tenth real size. (Christy Collection)
I. Wooden shield, bound with plaited rattan, with black and white pattern, from Friedrich-Wilhelm's
Harbour. 2. Carved shield from Hatzfeld Harbour. 3. Wooden battle-shield from Astrolabe
Bay. 4. Wooden battle-shield from Trobriand. 5. Motu-motu shield from Freshwater Bay—
one-twelfth real size. (Berlin Museum of Ethnology) ... 216
Wooden dish from Hawaii. (British Museum) . ' o
Mats from Tongatabu. (Vienna Ethnographical Museum) ■ ■ ■ \a
Stone pestles from Hawaii— one-fourth real size. (Cook Collection, Vienna Museum) . 240
Earthenware vessels from the Fiji Islands. (Godeffroy Collection, Leipzig) . . 240
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216
217
218
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220
221
221
222
222
223
224
224
225
226
228
230
231
235
LTST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Carved spatulas for betel-lime from Eastern New Guinea— two-sevenths real size. (Christy Collection)
Utensils from Hawaii (Arning Collection, Berlin Museum): i. Calabash-carrier of coco-nut fibre.
2, 3. Calabashes with pattern burnt in, stoppered with conus shells. ^. Beaters of kauila wood.
5. Stamping sticks for tapa. 6. Oil lamps of lava. 7. Decoration for chiefs, a sling of human
hair with carved cachalot's tooth. 8. Necklace of similar teeth from Fiji. 9-12. Straw plaiting,
probably a modern importation. 1-8, one-fifth to one-sixth ; 9-12, one-half real size
Wickerwork (basket, pouches, and fly-whisk), from Tongatabu. (Cook Collection, Vienna Ethno
graphic Museum) ..........
Polynesian fan and fly-whisks, insignia of chiefs, probably from Tongatabu. (Cook Collection)
Wicker fans probably from Samoa. (British Museum) ......
Wooden bowl for food, from the Admiralty Islands — one-eighth real size. (Christy Collection)
1. Bamboo water-vessels from New Guinea — one-third real size. 2. Carved gourd used for betel-box
from the Trobriand Islands — one-third real size. (Christy Collection)
Carved bamboo box from Western New Guinea — three-fourths real size. (Christy Collection)
Chisel and shell auger, from New Britain. (Berlin Museum) ....
I. Fishing trimmer from the Solomon Islands — one-eighth real size (Christy Collection). 2. Floats.
sinkers, baler, and war-spears, from New Caledonia (Vienna Museum)
A New Zealand trawl-net. (Munich Ethnographical Museum)
Shark-trap with wooden float from Fiji. (Berlin Museum) ....
Smoked fish from Massiha in East New Guinea — one-sixth real size. (Berlin Museum)
Cuttle-fish baits from the Society Islands — two-fifths real size. (Christy Collection and Berlin Museum)
Pots and implements (the two calabashes for betel-lime) from the Admiralty Islands, also a shell horn —
one-fifth real size. (Christy Collection) . . ....
Covered vessel in shape of a bird, inlaid with shell, from the Pelew Islands. (British Museum)
Another vessel of the same material. (British Museum) .....
New Caledonian hut (Qu. sacred) after a model ; doorposts and roof-ornament supplied from originals
in the Berlin Museum .........
Roof-ornaments and shoring-props from New Caledonia. (Vienna Museum)
Mats from Tongatabu. (Cook Collection, Vienna) ....
House in the Arfak village of Memiwa, New Guinea. (After Raffray) .
Stool from Dorey in New Guinea — one-seventh real size. (Christy Collection) .
New Caledonian head-stools. (Vienna Museum) ......
Carved and painted rafters from common halls {pais) in Ruk. (Godeffroy Collection, Leipzig) .
I. Gourd bottle from the D'Entrecasteaux Islands — one-third real size. 2. Head-stool from Yap — one
fourth real size. (Finsch Collection, Berlin) ......
Chiefs wife of Puapua, Samoa. (From a photograph in the Godeffroy Album) .
Tongan ladies. (From the Godeffroy Album) . . ....
Old Tongan woman. (From the Godeffroy Album) .....
Princess Ruth of Hawaii. (From a photograph belonging to Professor Buchner, Munich)
Women of Ponape in the Carolines. (From the Godeffroy Album) ....
A Tagal village : Luzon in the Philippines. (From a photograph) ....
Fly-whisk, from the Society Islands — one-sixth real size. (Christy Collection) .
Fly-whisks (chief's insignia), from the Society Islands — one-fifth real size. (Christy Collection)
Fly-whisk (insignia of a chief), from Samoa — one-eighth real size. (British Museum) .
Toy paddles, from New Zealand — one-sixth real size. (Christy Collection)
Chief of Tae in the Mortlocks. (Godeffroy Album) ......
" Kahile" or fly-flap, carried by the attendants of men of rank, from Hawaii. (Christy Collection)
King Lunalilo of Hawaii. (From a photograph) ......
Samoan warrior in to/a-clothing. (From the Godeffroy Album) ....
Ear-button from the Marquesas and amulet from Tahiti — two-thirds real size. (Christy Collection)
Warrior of the Solomon Islands. (From the Godeffroy Album) . ....
Fijian warrior. (From the Godeffroy Album) .......
Coco-palm leaf, as a token of peace, from Venus Hook in New Guinea ; and paddle-shaped spoon,
eight feet in length, for stirring food at feasts, carved with a Maori design, from the Normanby
Islands. (Finsch Collection, Berlin) .......
Sacrificial knife, available also as an instrument of torture, from Easter Island — one-half real size.
(Berlin Museum) ..........
Human lower jaw set as an arm-ring, from New Guinea. (Christy Collection) .
Ancestral image {Korvar) from New Guinea — one-fourth real size. (British Museum) .
A Fiji Islander. (From a photograph in the Godeffroy Album) .....
I. Sacred drum with carving from High Island, Austral Group — one-fourth real size (Christy Collection)
2. Stick calendar of the Ngati Ranki tribe in New Zealand (British Museum)
PAGE
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THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Charms made of human bone, votive bunches of hair, and turtle skull, from a temple in the Admiralty
Islands — one-fifth real size. (Christy Collection) ....
Ancestral images from Easter Island— one-tenth real size. (Munich Museum) .
Carved post from a house from New Zealand. (Christy Collection) . . . • •
Idols carved in wood— one-tenth real size. (London Missionary Society's Collection, now British Museum).
I. From Rarotonga, Hervey Group. 2. Rurutu, Austral Group. 3. From Aitutaki, Hervey
Group
Sacred place in Dorey, New Guinea. (After Raffray) .
Love charm from New Guinea— one-fifth real size. (Christy Collection)
Article employed in Melanesian rites, for holding objects of use in magic— one-half real size. (Berlin
Museum) . . ...
Human figure of shells and hermit-crabs, used as a temple-ornament in New Ireland— one-eighth real
size. (Berlin Museum) • .....
Child-mummy on the bier used for burial, from Torres Straits— one-sixth real size. (Berlin Museum)
South Australian native women. (From a photograph) ......
Eucalyptus Forest in South Australia. (From the account of the voyage of the " Novara ")
Marsilia Druminondi .... ....
Queensland girl. (From a photograph by C. Giinther) .
Young Queensland man. (From a photograph by C. Giinther) ....
Native of New South Wales. (From a photograph) ....
Billy Bull and Emma Dugal, natives of South Australia. (From a photograph)
Message-sticks with picture-writing, from West Australia— one-third real size. (Berlin Museum)
Woman's apron of emu feathers. (Berlin Museum) . . ...
Wooden belt, said to be Australian, but perhaps from the New Hebrides — one-fourth real size. (Berlin
Museum) ... . . ...
Necklace of kangaroo teeth, probably from West Victoria — one-sixth real size. (Berlin Museum)
Womrteras or throwing-sticks of the Australians — one-fifth real size. (Berlin Museum and British
Museum) ... ...
Wooden spears, mostly from North Australia ; the second and third from the right are fish-spears — one^
fifth real size. (British Museum and Berlin Museum)
New South Wales men, showing breast scars. (From a photograph)
Bamboo bow, from Torres Straits Islands — one-thirteenth real size. (British Museum)
Arrow-head from New Guinea, Torres Straits — fourth -fifths real size. (Dresden Ethnographical
Museum) . .....
Stone axes ; the three above from North Australia, the lower from Queensland or Victoria — one-sixth
real size. (Berlin Museum)
Boomerangs and boomerang-shaped clubs. The stick in the middle is of uncertain use — one-tenth real
size. (British Museum and Berlin Museum) .....
Axes of stone or horse-shoe iron from Queensland— one-fifth real size. (British Museum)
Stone club, said to be Australian, possibly from New Britain. (British Museum)
North Australian with spears, axe, and club. (From a photograph)
Queensland canoe. (Godeffroy Collection, Leipzig) ...
Striking and throwing clubs— one-eighth real size. (Berlin Museum)
New South Wales men, showing breast-scars. (From a photograph)
Australian bags of woven grass— one-sixth real size. (British Museum) .
Opossum rug ; one-eighth real size. (Berlin Museum) .
New South Wales women and child. (From a photograph)
Queensland girls, one showing " scar-tattooing." (From a photograph)
Young Queensland man with " scar-tattooing." (From a photograph)
Melanesian axes, clubs, and hammers. (British Museum)
New South Wales woman with " scar-tattooing." (From a photograph)
Austrahan magic-sticks. (Vienna Museum) ....
\i'illiam Lanney, the last Tasmanian. (From a photograph)
Truganina, the last Tasnianian woman. (From a photograph)
7i.ustraliau shields ....
Australian " bull-roarers "—one-fourth real size. (Berlin Museum)
A Battak of Sumatra. (From a photograph)
A Dyak of Borneo. (From a photograph in the Damann Album)
Weapon used by watchmen in Java to catch persons running amok.
Collection) .
A Calinga of Luzon in the Philippines. (From a photograph in the Damann Album) .
Tabongs, v/ith Rejang characters, from Sumatra— four-fifths real size. (Munich Museum)
305
306
310
(Stockholm Ethnographical
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Magic staves of the Battaks, used especially for weather-magic, and also borne in war — one-eightli real
size. (Leipzig and Dresden Museum) . . • ■ 403
A Calinga woman of Luzon. (From a photograph in the Damann Album) 406
Toangos of Northern Sumatra. (From a photograph) ... . 4^7
Tangoi or South-East Bornean head-dress — one-third and one-seventeenth real size. (Frankfort
City Museum) .... ... 408
Hats worn by chiefs of Kutei tribes in Borneo. (Munich Museum) . . 409
Igorrote tattooing : a, b, designs on the calves of the legs ; c, d, on the stomach ; e, front view ; /, back
view of a .Swrz'^ ; ^, a woman's arm. (From drawings by Dr. Hans Meyer) . . . 410
Igorrote necklaces, with (a) tweezers for pulling out hair ; (b) pendants of crocodile teeth — one-third
real size. (From Dr. Meyer's Collection) ... . . 411
Ring worn by the Igorrotes on the upper arm when dancing — one-third real size. (From the same) . 411
Malay weapons : I, 2. Hat and shield from Mindanao, in the Philippines. 3. Quiver with poisoned
arrows from Celebes. 4. A champion's shield from Solor. 5. Sword from Gorontalo in
Celebes. 6. Mandaii of the Kahayan River Dyaks. 7. Outfit from Ombai. 8. Spears from
Java. (Dresden Collection) .... . . 412
Bows and arrows of the Negritos in Luzon — one-twelfth real size. (Dr. Meyer's Collection) . . 413
Bow from Sulu of Asiatic origin, and Negrito harpoon — one-twelfth real size. (Dresden Collection) 414
Blow-gun, arrows, and quiver, from Borneo — one-fourth real size. (Stockholm Museum) . 414
Blow-gun, small quiver, and spears of the Kahayan Dyaks of South Borneo ; bow, arrows, and quiver
from Poggi. (Munich Museum) . . . . 415
Mandaus or swords, krisses, and knives : i , from South Celebes ; 2, from the Batang-lupar Dyaks ;
3, from Java ; 4, from Gilolo ; 5, from Java ; 6, from the Kahayan Dyaks ; 7, from Mentawei ;
8, from the Rejangs of Sumatra — one-sixth real size. (Munich Museum) 416
Krisses : i, from Celebes ; 2, said to be from Bali — one-fourth real size. (Munich Museum) 418
Dagger from Borneo — one-fifth real size. (Royal Museum, Leyden) . . . 419
I, Sling and sheath of, z, Igorrote chopping-knife. 3. Guinan hatchet, from Luzon — one-sixth real
size. (From Dr. Hans Meyer's Collection) ..... . 419
Igorrote and Guinan spears and shields — one-tenth real size. (From Dr. Hans Meyer's Collection) . 420
Spears and shields — i and 7, from Nias ; 2, from Mentawei ; 3, 4, 6, from West Borneo ; 5, from
Gorontalo; 8, from Borneo. (Munich Museum) . ... . 421
Shield, blow-gun, spear, and swords of the Torabjas in Central Celebes — one-sixth real size.
(Frankfort City Museum) . . . . . . 422
Mail-coats worn by the Dyaks of South-East Borneo . . . 423
Malay utensils : i. Comb from Timor. 2. Knife from the Philippines. 3. Sickle from Java. 4. Cow-
bells from Sumatra. 5. Brasier and rice-pot from Java. 6. Basket from Celebes. 7. Rice basket
from Java, for cooling steamed rice in the cover. 8. Brass pipe of the Battaks. (Dresden
Ethnographical Museum) . . .... 424
A house in Sumatra. (From a model in the Dresden Museum) . 425
Plough used by the Triamans of Bencoolen. (Dresden Museum) . 425
Agricultural implements used by the Igorrotes : I. Rice-knife, z. Digging-stick (i, one-half ; 2, one-
tenth real size). (From Dr. Meyer's Collection) ...... 426
Hoes from — l, Singapore ; 2, Sumatra — one-fourth real size. (Munich Museum) . . . 428
Battak hoes from Sumatra — one-seventh real size. (Leipzig Museum of Ethnology) 429
Javanese buffalo-cart. (From a photograph) . ... 430
I. Wooden tureen and spoon from Luzon — one-third real size (from Dr. Meyer's Collection), z.
Sumatran saddle (Dresden Museum) ..... . . 431
Dish-cover of armadillo scales from Sumatra — one-tenth real size. (Stoclcholm Museum) 432
Dish-cover from South-East Borneo. (Stockholm Museum) .... 432
I. Bamboo betel and tobacco boxes from West Sumatra — one-third real size (Munich Museum).
2. Igorrote spindle — one-third real size (from Dr. Meyer's Collection) . . . 433
Tobacco pipes used by the Igorrotes and Guinansof Luzon — two-thirds real size. (Dr. Meyer's
Collection). ........ 434
Carved wooden sirih box from Deli, East Sumatra — one-fourth real size. (From a drawing) . . 434
I. Malay loom (from a photograph). 2. Sack carried by the Igorrotes of Luzon — one-eighth real size.
(Dr. Meyer's Collection) ...... . -435
Basket of a Dyak head-hunter, with half a skull hanging on it. (Munich Museum) . . 448
Small head-basket used by Guinans of Luzon— one-third real size. (Dr. Meyer's Collection) 449
Chief and dignitary of Nias. (From a photograph) ... . 450
Malagasy of Negroid type. (From a photograph in Pruner Bey's Collection) . 454
Malagasy of Negroid type. (Same source) .... ■ 455
Sakalava musical instrument— one-third real size. (Berlin Museum) . . 45^
THE HISTORY OP MANKIND
Hova guitar and powder-horn. (Dresden Museum)
Malagasy necklace of carved horn. (Missionary Society's Museum)
House of a Hova chief. (From the Globus) ...
Fenced farm-house in Imerina, Madagascar. (After Ellis) ....
Rice-mortar and paddle from Madagascar. (Stockholm Ethnographical Collection)
Madagascar hubble-bubble, in the African style — one-fifth real size. (Berlin Museum) .
Drawing of a herd of cattle, on the bamboo drinking-cup represented on opposite page. (Berlin Museum)
Woven pouch from Madagascar — one-half real size. (Berlin Museum) ....
Hova drinking-cups of bamboo, used also for tobacco-boxes — one-half real size. (Berlin Museum)
Antananarivo, the Hova capital. (From a photograph) ......
Rainitnalavona and Rainilaiarivona, two Prime Miriisters of Radama H. (After Ellis) .
Igorrote ancestral image — one-twelfth real size. (From Dr. Meyer's Collection)
Sacred jar, probably from Borneo — one-sixth real size. (Leyden Museum)
Wax figure of Buffalo ; perhaps an amulet of the Guinans — one-half real size. (From Dr. Meyer
Collection) ..........
Talisman from North Borneo and ancestral image from Nias. (Dresden Museum)
Rosary with amulet from Madagascar — one-half real size. (Berlin Museum)
Rainitsontsoraka — a Christian martyr in Madagascar. (After Ellis) ....
457
458
459
460
461
461
462
462
463
464
465
468
470
471
473
479
480
BOOK I
PRINCIPLES OF ETHNOGRAPHY
§ I. THE TASK OF ETHNOGRAPHY
Geographical conceptions and historical considerations of which account has to be taken in dealing with our
subject — Mankind a whole — The task of ethnography is to demonstrate the cohesion of the human race.
Our business in this work is to impart a knowledge of mankind as we find it
to-day throughout the earth. Owing to the long-established practice of con-
sidering with any attention lio races save the most progressive and most highly
civilized, until it is from these almost exclusively that we form our notion of man-
kind, and of their doings that make up the history of the world, it becomes the
duty of ethnography to apply itself all the more faithfully to the neglected
lower strata of humanity. Besides that, its aim must also be to take up this
conception of humanity not in a merely superficial way, just so far as the races
have grown up in the shade of the dominant civilized peoples, but to trace
actually among these lower strata the processes which have rendered possible the
transition to the higher developments of to-day. Ethnography must acquaint
us not only with what man is, but with the means by which he has become
what he is, so far as the process has left any traces of its manifold inner
workings. It is only so that we shall get a firm grasp of the unity and com-
pleteness of the human race. With regard to the course that our investigation
must follow, we have especially to remember that the difference of civilization /v
which divides two groups of mankind may bear no kind of relation to the
difference of their endowments. This will be the last difference which we shall
have to think of; the first points to consider will be differences in development
and surroundings. We shall therefore bestow a thorough consideration upon
the external surroundings of the various races, and endeavour pari passu to
trace the historical development of the circumstances in which we find them
to-day. The geographical conception of their surroundings, and the historical
consideration of their development, will thus go hand in hand. It is only from >/
the combination of the two that a just estimate can be formed.
Our growth in intelligence and culture, all that we call the progress of
civilization, may better be compared with the upward shoot of a plant than with
the unconfined flight of a bird ; we remain ever bound to the earth, and the twig
can only grow on the stem. Human nature may raise its head aloft in the pure
ether, but its feet must ever rest on the ground, and the dust must return to the
dust. Hence the necessity of attention to the geographical point of view. As
for historical considerations, we can point to races which have remained the same
for thousands of years, and have changed their place, their speech, their physical
appearance, their mode of life not at all, their religion and their knowledge only
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
superficially. Herodotus tells us about a race of Troglodytes, who dwelt near trie
Garamantes, the inhabitants of the modern Fezzan. They were active and swift-
footed, and spoke a language almost unknown beyond their own boundaries.
Here we have Nachtigal's Tebus or Tedas, who to this day inhabit the natural
caverns in their rocks, are renowned far and wide for activity and fleetness of foot,
and speak a language which has hardly extended itself beyond the walls of their
rocky fortress. Thus for 2000 years at least, and for all we know much longer,
they have lived in just the same way. They are to-day no poorer, no richer, no
wiser, no more ignorant, than they have been these thousands of years. They
have acquired nothing in addition to what they possessed then. Each generation
has repeated the history of the one before it, and that repeated its predecessors ;
as we say, they have made no progress. They have always been men with certain
gifts — strong, active, having virtues and defects of their own. There they stand, a
fragment of bygone ages. In the same space of time we have emerged from the
darkness of our forests on to the stage of history ; we have made our name, alike
in peace and war, honoured and dreaded by all nations. But have we as individuals
undergone any so great change ? Are we in physical or intellectual power, in
virtue, in capacity, any further ahead of our generations of ancestors than the
Tubus of theirs ? It may be doubted. The main difference lies in the fact that
we have laboured more, acquired more, lived more rapidly, and above all, have
kept what we have acquired and known how to use it. Our inheritance is larger,
fuller of young life ; and therefore a comparison of national positions gives us a
higher standing among mankind, and indicates too how and why we have become
what we are, and what road we must take in order to advance a stage farther.
Throughout all national judgments we find unmistakably as a fundamental
fact the feeling of individual self-esteem causing us to take by preference the
unfavourable view of our neighbours. We must at least try to be just ; and the
study of mankind may aid in that direction, impressing upon us as it does the
important principle that in all dealings with men and nations we ought, before
forming a judgment, to consider that all their thoughts, feelings, and actions bear
an essentially graded character. In one stage or another anything may happen,
- and mankind is divided not by gaps, but by steps. The task of ethnography is
therefore to indicate, not in the first instances the distinctions, but the points of
transition, and the intimate affinities which exist ; for mankind is one whole,
though very variously cultured. And if it cannot be too often proclaimed that
a nation consists of individuals, which are and remain in all its operations its
ultimate elements, there is yet so great a conformity of disposition among these
individuals that the thoughts which go forth from one man are as certain to find
an echo in others, if they can succeed in reaching them, as the same seed is certain
to produce like fruits in like soils.
But the tracing of the road above mentioned is of great importance.
Elementary ideas have an irresistible power of expansion, and there is no reason
in the nature of things why they should come to a stop at the hut of a Kaffir or
the fireplace of a Botocudo. But the obstacles which hinder or delay their travels
are endless ; and besides, as they arise from life and accompany life, they are like
all life, changeable. Herein is a main cause of the differences among races and of
a mass of ethnological problems. One may even say that in the geographical dis-
tribution of mankind to begin with, and then in the manner in which they have
SITUATION, ASPECT, AND NUMBERS OF THE HUMAN RACE 5
acquired culture and the means of culture from the production of fire up to the
loftiest ideas of the historical nations, lies the key to the history of primitive man.
We can conceive a universal history of civilization, which should assume
a point of view commanding the whole earth, in the sense of surveying the history
of the extension of civilization throughout mankind ; it would penetrate deep and
far into what is usually called ethnography, the study of the human race. For
tjie further inquiry reaches into the depths of prehistoric peoples and those that
are outside of history, the more will it meet in every sphere and on every level of
civilization with essentially the same single form, which long ago, before the
conditions existed for the development of numerous separate centres of civilization,
was . imparted by one race to another over the earth ; and this it wih regard as
in close connection with mankind of to-day, with the race which has raised all
ifg great new creations upon that common foundation, of which many a fragment
still remains unaltered in its hands. At no distant future, no one will write a
history of the world without touching upon those peoples which have not hitherto
been regarded as possessing a history because they have left no records written
or grav^ in stone. History consists of action ; and how unimportant beside
this is TOe question of writing or not writing, how wholly immaterial, beside the
facts of doing and making, is the word that describes them. Here also ethno-
graphy will show the way to juster notions.
§ 2. SITUATION, ASPECT, AND NUMBERS OF THE HUMAN RACE
The inhabited world — The races of the fringe — East and West — Old and New Worlds — North and South —
The Ethiopian region — Mutual influence of Northern and Southern races — Insular character of lands —
Importance of seafaring — Water on the face of the globe — Unity of the human race — The number and
laws of mankind — Movements of races — Extinction of native races through contact with cultivation, and
by themselves — Racial distinctions — Half-breeds.
The human race inhabits countries and islands in the temperate and torrid
regions of the earth ; some par1?>are found in the frigid zone of the northern
hemisphere. Its place of abode forms a zone of varying breadth, lying between
the extreme latitudes of 80° north and 55" south. As regards the two great
oceans, the northern shores of the Pacific (where Asia and America come within
fifty miles of each other) form part of the inhabited region, as also a broad band
in the niiddle, remarkable for the abundance of its habitable islands. On the
other hand, the Atlantic, until the Scandinavian colonisation of the Faroes and
Iceland, formed a broad gap in the belt of human habitation. We can thus
distinguish in the inhabited world, the surface of which, not counting seas, may
be taken at about fourteen millions of square miles, northern and southern borders
formed by the uninhabitable ice-deserts of the polar regions, eastern and western
borders, between which lies the Atlantic Ocean. The races dwelling in these
confines look out into emptiness, and have not neighbours on every side, but
when their settlements have been pushed far forwards, find themselves in an isolated
position ; whence a lack in their case of ethnographical interest. On the other
hand, some groups of races are so situated as to have enjoyed the important
advantages of an intermediate position ; such are some of the races that we meet
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
with in the Pacific, especially toward its northern border, in the districts bordering
on the Mediterranean, in Central America. From the position and form of the
inhabited world, it is clear that the northern hemisphere contains a larger number
of persons than the southern ; that it offers wider districts to open up, with more
sides of contact, of more various endowments, and therewith richer possibilities ;
in short, that in position, form, and dimensions, it has from early time had all
the advantages as regards the development of humanity.
The distribution of man, and equally that of plants and animals, is based, in
the northern hemisphere, on interdependence ; in the southern on separation. If
we look at mankind as a whole, we can see that its northern members lie in a
widespread mutually operative connection ; its southern in remote separation. If
we look at the races, we find the Negroids belonging to the south, the Mongoloids
and Whites to the north. Civilization has reached its highest developments north
of the equator. We shall find similar contrasts in ethnography ; for example, the
bowless races belong to the southern groups, whereas in the north we find bows
and arrows, not only all over a broad zone, but on fundamentally the same model,
from Lapland to East Greenland and Mexico. ^
Eskimo bow made of bones (British Museum).
The wide gap which the Atlantic Ocean opens in the zone of habitation has
the effect of producing " fringe "-lands. Although a brisk intercourse from north
to south, together with thickly-peopled regions at the back, and more favourable
climates, have rendered these far less ethnographically destitute than the regions
towards the poles, we still find that in Africa the highest development has been
reached on the east coast, in America on the west, that is on the inner sides or
those farthest from the Atlantic. The population of Africa has undoubted affini-
ties with that of Asia, but shows no trace of any relations with America. But
this connection extends farther, beyond the limits of the mainland of Asia to the
great Asiatic islands ; it forms a great region of civilization between the northern
and southern borders, which may be regarded as the western counterpart of that
more easterly region extending across the Pacific into America. The great mark
of distinction between the two portions lies in the use or non-use of iron. In the
north, indeed, the western region encroaches upon the eastern ; but the contrast
between north and south, ever-increasing, remains persistent past the point where it
crosses the boundary between East and West. In their intersection we find the ex-
pression of a great difference in antiquity between the former classification which is
mainly anthropological, and the latter which is ethnographical. In the later develop-
ment of races iron has unquestionably played an important part. The boundary
between countries which do and do not use iron corresponds with those of other
important regions of ethnographic distribution. Where there is no iron cattle-
breeding, the staple of which is oxen, buffaloes, sheep, goats, horses, camels and
elephants, is also unknown ; pigs and poultry also are seldom bred in lands
without iron. The distinction in political and social relations goes far deeper. In
SITUATION, ASPECT, AND NUMBERS OF THE HUMAN RACE 7
America, Oceania, and Australia we have a much older stage of development :
group -marriage, exogamy, mother- right, and clan -division ; in Europe, Africa,
and Asia, the patriarchal system of the family, monogamy, states in the modern
sense. Thus among mankind also east and west stand over against each other.
America is the extreme east of the human race, and thus we may expect to find
there older stages of development than in Africa and Europe, the extreme west.
The distribution of races affords a far less simple picture. The Negroid is
indeed essentially a southern race. Its northern limit is in Africa formed by the
desert ; continued in Asia by lofty mountains ; reaches its only important extension
beyond the northern tropic in the angle of the Indus, and retreats in Oceania to
the south side of the equator. Thus we have a southern domain, belonging
essentially to the geographical eastern hemisphere, of which the largest territories
lie compact and altogether between the tropics and in the south temperate zone.
In addition to their southern situation they are affected by the peculiar features
of outline and surface which here prevail. The geographical opposition between
north and south exists of course all the earth over ; but as a factor in ethno-
graphical or anthropological distinctions it concerns only the so-called Old World
and the parts adjacent, a fact which has a large share in producing the great
variety in the appearance and form of men as we find them on this side,
embracing every stage of development from the highest to the lowest. In
America, on the contrary, we find one race both north and south, and no ethno-
graphic distinctions of the magnitude which North and South Africa, North and
South Asia, or Australia have to show. Anthropologically throughout, ethno-
graphically in many portions, America belongs to the northern regions.
On the other hand, in Africa and Asia the most important question bears
upon the relations between north and south. A sharp distinction is here made
by the different nature of the boundaries towards the north. Between the negroes
and North Africa lies the desert, a large and substantial barrier. South Asia
consists only of loosely connected parts, not sharply marked off from the north
and middle regions. Above all, India has been subject to influences which
distinguish it from Africa ; but both in customs and physical characteristics we
find in Africa earlier, that is less modified, conditions of a development proceeding
from the same origin as in India. Lastly, Malaysia shares with Madagascar and
India in the invasion of offsets from northern races.
Wherever dark and light races have been in contact, from the north-west point
of Africa to Fiji, crossing has taken place between them. Such half-bred races,
of most various degrees of intermixture, inhabit the Soudan, the Sahara, Southern
and Central East Africa, Southern Arabia, Madagascar, southern India on both
sides of the Bay of Bengal, and Australia. In southern Europe and the extreme
of Polynesia we find isolated traces of negroid admixture. Only one well-defined
race, thanks to its secluded position, has been able fully to develop itself. We
refer to the Australians, who with their dark skins, stiff or curly hair, and long
(dolichocephalic) heads appear to spring from a cross of Papuan with Malayo-
Polynesian ancestors. The peculiarities (of which we do not know the origin)
belonging to the Papuan type are also noticeable here ; and we have besides
the tendency to degradation in the traces of a low stage of culture and a life of
poverty.
The water surface of the earth extends in the sea alone to almost three-
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
quarters of the whole, so that all the land is an island in a sea nearly three times
its size. The most widely separated portion of mankind must, even in the course of
their movements in historical times, have been brought to the sea ; and before the
invention of seafaring there must have been a time when the sea confined them^
to those regions which had been the cradle of the race. That invention, the
earliest indications of which have long disappeared — for in all parts of the earth we
find high development of the art side by side with ignorance of it — was the first
thing that rendered possible the spread of mankind over almost all the habitable
Fijian double canoe.
portions of the globe. In the most various parts of the earth we meet with the
arts of shipbuilding and navigation in an advanced stage. This is most conspicuous
in the Pacific, least so in the Atlantic. This irregular distribution is a sign of the
ease with which the art is forgotten ; so that we must not from its absence in
places, and the absence even of any memory of it, infer a continued or complete
non-activity in regard to the sea. Even if we did not meet, in Hawaii and else-
where, with traditions of larger and better vessels in former times, the close
connection which subsists between a high social and political organisation and
proficiency in seafaring would presume the possibility of a rapid retrogression
in the latter. The Northmen sailed to Iceland, Greenland, America, in little boat%:
which, perhaps, were not so good as those used by the Polynesians ; afterwards
they lost sight of the land which had been their goal, and forgot the way to it.
The very extent of the inhabited world at the present day, embracing as it does
SITUATION, ASPECT, AND NUMBERS OF THE HUMAN RACE g
all habitable lands with the exception of a few remote and small islands, is in
itself evidence for the antiquity of man.
The broad expanse of waters opened to men a copious source of food, and for
that reason caused the maritime regions to be most thickly peopled ; it also facili-
tated intercourse between distant countries, which might have been impossible
across lands inhabited by hostile races, and accordingly the higher civilization
spread inland from the coasts. For this reason it has always exercised the
remarkable influence upon men's thoughts which we see in the part played by
the sea or lake-horizon in all images of the world that have ever been conceived.
Most of these picture the earth as an island in a broad sea, and the future world
as lying far off in the sea. Whether this be a land with a stream round it or an
island in the evening glow, whether it be in a lake or in a river, or copious
springs gush from it, or beardless youths constantly hold the water back from
it, or whether, lastly, it is only that the way to it lies over the sea, it is not
waterless land. The soul has to take its way across water ; hence the frequent
occurrence of boat-formed coffins or even grave-stones, the burial in boats, or the
little canoe used by the'Dyaks as a sepulchral monument.
Thus wherever the earth is habitable by man, we find peoples who are members
of one and the same human race. The unity of the human genus is as it were
the work of the planet Earth, stamped on the highest step of creation therein.
There is only one species of man ; the variations are numerous, but do not go
deep. Man is in the widest sense a citizen of the earth. Even to parts of the
earth where he cannot remain he makes his way. He knows nearly the entire
globe. Of all the beings attached to the ground he is one of the most locomotive.
Individual movements are linked together, and one great movement, the substratum
of which is all humanity, goes forward with time. As the linking is necessary
and continuous, it raises individual movement to a position of higher significance.
The ultimate result is not only a wider distribution, but also the increasing
permeation of the portions that dwell within the habitable limits until a general
agreement in essentials is attained. This affects the whole ; peculiarities adhere
to localities. Thus we are entitled, in a scientific sense, to speak of the unity of
the human race, if by unity we understand not uniformity but the community,
shown by testimonies from every domain, of the life of different peoples, in a
history embracing many thousands of years, as presupposed by the common basis
which nature' has given. If there has been in the later historical period so rapid
an acceleration in the pace at which culture has progressed, that certain groups
seem to have advanced far beyond the remaining mass, there yet remains much
of the common inheritance to be found among the highest as well as the lowest
strata. And if it be inquired, what is the origin of this common inheritance, we
can again point to the fact that restless movement is the stamp of mankind. In
comparison with its strength and duration the earth is small ; a thousand
generations of our ancestors, from the moment that ships were invented for the
crossing of rivers and seas, were enabled, whether voluntarily or not, to wander
round it. But that moment lies far behind us. Only a short-sighted conceit can
regard the fact that, in the four centuries since the discovery of America, Europeans
have spread far and wide over that continent their domestic animals and plants,
their weapons and implements, above all their religion, as an unapproached
phenomenon in the history of the world. Others besides Northmen discovered
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
America before Columbus. The world that we pretentiously style " the New
must have been discovered from the westward many a time before the Pale Faces
came from the east as the latest and definitive discoverers. If the Malays have
spread over the 200° of longitude that separate Madagascar from Easter Island
in a period which, as language and else shows, has not been going on for many
centuries ; if, since the European discovery of America, individual tribes in that
continent have changed their locality by over 2000 miles ; if over half Africa,
within a belt 40° of latitude in width, a language is spoken with only differences
of dialect equivalent to that between high and low German, we must grant that
European civilization was not the first to set a girdle round the earth. The great
and only distinction is that to-day that takes place deliberately which in former
ages was the result of a dim impulse, such as in historic times acted on Alexander
and Columbus, in prehistoric times on thousands of their predecessors,
, If we regard mankind as a body ever in movement, we cannot, as once was
usual, look upon it as a union of species, sub-species, groups, races, tribes, rigidly
separate from each other. As soon as ever a portion of mankind had learnt to
plough the dissociating ocean, the mark' was set for ever-progressing fusion. If
we assume, with the majority of anthropologists at the present day, a single origin
for man, the reunion, into one real whole, of the parts which have diverged after
the fashion of " sports," must be regarded as the unconscious ultimate aim of
these movements of mankind. This, in the limited space of the habitable world,
must lead to permeation, and, as a consequence, to mingling, crossing, levelling.
But again, as a similar organisation has spread among men, the possibility has
increased of migration to places the most remote from the original abode ; and in
the whole world there is hardly a frontier left which has not been crossed. In
applying the comprehensive term " Wandering of the Nations," people are apt to
overlook the individual, whose movements we must expressly declare are no less
important.
The numbers of mankind are closely dependent on their territory, since this
exercises a great influence on their interior development, their distribution, their
relations. The total figure, as now estimated, of 1,500,000,000 must be regarded
as the result of a development never attained before. The development of
modern conditions is in a higher measure than is usually believed connected with
the increased replenishment of the earth. The organisation of races outside of
the European and Asiatic sphere of civilization does not permit any density of
population to exist. Small communities cultivating their narrow patches of
ground are separated from each other by wide empty spaces which either serve
for hunring-grounds or lie useless and vacant. These limit the possibilities of
intercourse, and render large permanent assemblies of men impossible. Hunting
races, among whom agriculture does not exist or tends to vanish, often dwell so
thinly scattered that there will be only one man, frequently less, to 24 square miles.
Where there is some agriculture, as among many Indian tribes, among Dyaks, in
Papua, we find from i o to 40 in the same area ; as it develops further, in Central
Africa for instance, or the Malay Archipelago, from 100 to 300. In the north-
west of America the fishing-races who live on the coast run to 100 in 20 square
miles, and the cattle-keeping nomads to about the same. Where fishing and
agriculture are combined, as in Oceania, we find as many as 500. The same
figure is reached in the steppes of Western Asia by the partly settled, partly
SITUATION, ASPECT, AND NUMBERS OF THE HUMAN RACE ii
nomad population. Here we cross the threshold of another form of civilization.
Where trade and industry combine to operate there is sustenance for io,000
persons (as in India and East Asia), or 15,000 (as in Europe) to 24 square m.iles.
This enumeration shows at the lowest round of the ladder peoples belonging
to the most different zones and countries. All races in a state of nature live
thinly scattered ; civilized populations are marked by greater density. The
former are more dependent on the soil than the latter ; in districts similarly
endowed their distribution is as a rule similarly proportioned. The difference
which we see between the well-cultivated but thinly-peopled corn-bearing areas
and the thickly-inhabited districts of spade-cultivation are results of civilization..
In density of population lies not only steadiness of and security for vigorous
growth, but also the immediate means of promoting civilization. The closer men
are in contact, the more they can impart to each other, the less does what is
acquired by civilization go to waste, the higher does competition raise the activity
of all their powers. The increase and maintenance of the numbers are intimately
connected with the development of culture ; a population thinly scattered over a
large district means low civilization, while in old or new centres of civilization we
find the people in dense masses. China and India reckon their inhabitants at
600,000,000, but an equivalent area of the intervening region of Central Asiatic
nomads, Mongolia, Tibet, East Turkestan, cannot show a sixtieth of the number.
Six-sevenths of the earth's inhabitants belong to civilized countries.
While the history of the European nations for centuries past shows the same
decided tendency to increase which we observe even in ancient times, the uncivilized
races offer examples of shrinkage and retrogression such as we find in the case of the
others, if at all, only lasting over a short period, and then as the result of casualties
such as war and pestilence. The very thinness of the population is a cause of
their decay ; their smaller numbers are more readily brought to the point of
dwindling or vanishing. Rapid using-up of the vital powers is a characteristic of
all the races in the lower stages of civilization. Their economical basis is narrow
and incomplete, frugality only too often verges on poverty, scarcity is a frequent
visitor, and all those measures of precaution with which sanitary science surrounds
our life are lacking. In the struggle with the too pov/erful forces of nature, as in
the Arctic regions or the steppe-districts of the southern hemisphere, on the confines
of the inhabited world, they often succumb till they are completely wiped out, and
a whole race perishes. It is quite a mistake to refer, as is often done, the extinc-
tion of barbarous races, of which we hear so much, solely to contact with superior
civilization. But closer consideration enables us to recognise self-destruction as a
no less frequent case. The two work as a rule together ; neither would attain its
end so quickly without the co-operation of the other. The basis of a healthy
increase in population is an approximate balance of the sexes ; this among
uncivilized people is generally disturbed, and the number of children small. War,
murder, and kidnapping all contribute to reduce the population. Human life is
of small value, as human sacrifices and cannibalism sufficiently indicate. Lastly,
man in a state of nature is far from possessing that ideal health of which so many
have fabled; the negroes of Africa can alone be described as a robust race.
Australians, Polynesians, Americans, on the other hand, are far more subject to
diseases than civilized men are, and adapt themselves to new climates with difficulty.
There is no question but that these peoples were in many districts slowly dying
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
out by sickness before the appearance of Europeans. But no doubt the arrival of
civilization disturbs society down to its roots. It contracts the available space, thus
altering one of the conditions upon which, as we shall hereafter see, the peculiar
social and political arrangements of races in a natural state were framed. It
introduces wants and enjoyments which are not in harmony with the mode of
living usual among these people, or their capacity for labour. It brings upon
them diseases previously unknown, which on a new soil commit frightful ravages;
and inevitable quarrels and fighting besides. Over the larger territories, such as
North America, Australia, New Zealand, the progress of civilization led to the
crowding of the aboriginal races into the least favourable districts, and therewith
to the diminution of their numbers. In the smaller, such as oceanic islands (but
also in Cuba and Haiti), they have nearly died out, in some cases been absorbed
by the stronger race, in any case they have disappeared. Where the greater
toughness of the inferior race, or more favourable natural conditions, has delayed
the process, as in any part of Africa, in North America, in Mexico, an intermixture,
which will ultimately end no less in the abolition of the natives as an individual
and independent race, is in progress. Great shiftings have already taken place,
others are going on, and over wide districts, owing to these passive movements,
it is impossible to think of the people as in a state of stability. As far as 95° of
west longitude. North America can show only the debris of Indian tribes;^ in
Victoria and New South Wales there are hardly a thousand aborigines left ; and
it is only a question of time when Northern Asia, North America, Australia, and
Oceania will be Europeanised.
A thousand examples show that in all this change and movement the races
cannot remain unaltered, and that even the most numerous, counting their hundreds
of millions, cannot keep their footing in the tumult that surges around them,
Inter-breeding is making rapid strides in all parts of the earth. From North and
East Africa, Arabs and peoples of the Berber stock are pressing upon the Negroes,
of whom the most remote tribes to the southern extremity of the continent show
in their Semitic features how long these influences have been at work. In the
place of the Hottentots we find the Bastaards, European half-breeds. In Canada
nearly all the French settlements show traces of Indian blood ; in Central and
South America the Mestizos and Mulattos are already stronger than the full-
blooded Indians ; in Oceania, Malays and Polynesians are crossed with the Negro
of the Pacific ; throughout Central Asia there is a mixture of Mongol, Chinese, and
European blood, reaching far in the direction of Europe and affecting the whole
north and east of one quarter of the globe. The greater bulk, quicker growth, and
superiority in all conquering arts, which mark the more highly civilized races, give
them, wherever climate is not unfavourable, the advantage in this process, and we
can speak of an absorption of the lower by the higher even where the latter for
the present are not in the majority. If there is any consolation in the universal
disappearance of native races, it is the knowledge that a great part of them is
being slowly raised by the process of intermixture. No doubt people like to
repeat a statement, professedly based on old experience, that in half-breeds the
vices of both parents predominate, but a glance at the national life of the present
day is enough to show that Mulattos, Mestizos, Negro and Arab half-breeds
' [There is some doubt whether the actual number of North American Indians has much diminished.
Rather the natural multiplication of the race has been checked.]
SITUATION, ASPECT, AND NUMBERS OF THE HUMAN RACE
13
Sandili, king of the Gaikas ; showing the Semitic type of the
Kaffirs. (From a photograph by G. Fritsch. )
stand in America and in Africa at the head of Indians and Negroes. The
mixture once begun continues to progress, and each fresh infusion of liigher
blood tends to reduce the interval by levelling up. We need only consider how
nearly the Indians of Mexico and
Peru have risen to the level of the
people of European descent, from
whom they seemed at the time of
the Conquest to be separated by a
bottomless chasm.
If the history of the world
shows a spread, interrupted indeed
but ever progressing, of civilization
throughout the earth, the natural
numerical preponderance existing
among civilized folk is an im-
portant factor therein. The people
who increase the more quickly pour
out their surplus upon the others,
and thus the influence of the higher
culture, which itself was the cause
or condition of the more rapid
multiplication, gets spontaneously
the upper hand. Thus the spread
of civilization appears as a self-
accelerating outgrowth over the
world of civilizing races, ever striv-
ing more completely to effect that
unity of the human race which
forms at once its aim and task, its
desire and hope.
In conclusion, if we seek to
trace backward the road which the
most important parts of mankind
have followed, we find the starting-
point to be the neighbouring exist-
ence of several variations, or, as
Blumenbach prefers, degenerated
forms of the one human species.
These were at first confluent at a
few points only ; but, as intercourse
increased, came more and more into
contact, at last penetrating and
mingling with each other to such
a degree that no one of the original
varieties now exists . in the form
once peculiar to it. What remains, however, leads us back to two great contrasted
divisions which survive in the races of to-day, the Whites and Mongoloids in the
northern hemisphere, the Negroes in the southern. These embrace the further
A Galla monk : Hamitic or Semitic blend. (From a photo-
graph in the collection of Pruner Bey. )
i^ THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
contrasts of continental compactness and oceanic disconnection ; of the world
which is deeply interlaced with the north polar regions, and that which is cut off
by the ocean from polar influences. The Negro races, whether in Africa, Asia,
or the Pacific, may once have lived further north than they do now ; but, in any
case, they always held the more southerly position under the impulse which has
assigned to them this present place of abode.
§ 3. THE POSITION OF NATURAL RACES AMONG MANKIND
The conception of a natural or barbarous race — Progress and retrogression — Bodily differences — Civilized races
—The brute in man— Wherein does the possession of culture consist ? — Common property of mankind
in reason, language, religion — In the remaining elements of civilization the difference is only one of
degree.
First a word as to the name of " natural " races which we shall frequently
have to use. They are those races who live more in bondage to, or in dependence
on, nature than do those whom we call " cultured " or " civilized." What the
name expresses is a distinction in mode of life, of mental talent, of historical
position ; it assumes nothing and prejudices nothing in those directions, and is
therefore doubly suitable for our purpose. For we shall perhaps have to make
this neutral name contain what is in many respects so different a conception as
that which the reader has b2en wont to attach to the term " savages." We
speak of natural races, not because they stand in the most intimate relations with
Nature, but because they are in bondage to Nature. The distinction between
natural and cultured races is not to be sought in the degree, but in the kind of
their association with Nature. Culture is freedom from Nature, not in the sense of
entire emancipation, but in that of a more manifold and wider connection. The
farmer who stores his corn in a barn is ultimately just as dependent on the soil of
his fields as the Indian who reaps in the swamps the rice which he did not sow ; but
the former feels the dependence less, since, owing to the provision which he had
the wisdom to store up, the chain is longer and its pressure accordingly less severe ;
while the latter is touched in the very sinews of life by every tempest which shakes
the ears into the water. We do not become any the freer of Nature by our more
thorough utilisation and exploration of her ; we only make ourselves less
dependent on individual accidents of her being or of her course by multiplying the
points of contact. It is just by reason of our civilization that we are actually
to-day more dependent on her than any former generation.
We must not content ourselves with contrasting natural and civilized races,
and noticing the wide gap which seems to yawn between them ; our business is
to propound the question : What is the position which the natural races hold
among mankind ? For centuries this question has been treated with an indolence
which, when its desire for facts, narratives, and descriptions was once appeased, felt
no further necessity for establishing the relation of " savages " to the rest of the
human race. These black and brown men were very strange, very curious ; it
was highly interesting to read of them, and that was quite enough. We have no
occasion to laugh at this attitude ; our own delight in descriptions of travel is
much of the same sort. The more uncivilized the country, the more fascinating
POSITION OF NATURAL RACES AMONG MANKIND 15
the tale. But the researches of Cook, Forster, Barrow, Lichtenstein, and so on,
making, as even they did, some effort after a deeper insight into and clearer views
of natural life, possessed for their contemporaries chiefly a romantic interest, and
gave little subject of consideration to the philosophers. The only deeper emotion
aroused by the increasing number, excellence, and popularity of works of travel
towards the end of the last century consisted in the shaking of beliefs in that
blissful state of nature which beautiful spirits after Rousseau venerated as the
most desirable existence, only to be realised in the solitude of primeval forests, or
on the shores of fortunate islands. It was sought, but never found. What a
disillusion for hearts of sensibility such as were possessed by the readers of The
Indian Wigwam, or George Forster's sketch of the paradisal Otaheitans.
Slowly did the consideration of savage races make its way from the sphere of
the emotions to that of the intellect ; and at the same time the estimate formed
of these races sank a good deal lower, proportionately almost to the greater distance
by which we are ahead of them rather in intellect than in those amiable dispositions
and expressions which had hitherto been regarded with predilection. Then came
into the world the idea of evolution, dividing races into strata ; whereby, as must be
clearly pointed out, uncivilized races were, on the basis less of considered facts
than of general sentiment, lumped together as a kind of heterogeneous foundation.
One can understand the almost passionate need which was felt of providing
supports in the world of actual fact for the bold edifice of the theory of evolution,
and if we cannot ally ourselves at all points with this feeling, it would be unjust
not to recognise that it has called forth, no less in the study of the life of races
than in that of all life, a movement which is bringing fruitful truths to light. In
every field the most difficult research is that into origins ; but it is just this once-
neglected but most profound problem which the evolutionists have handled in
ethnology as well as elsewhere with an admirable unity of purpose. Whether
negative or positive, their results deserve our gratitude. To them is due the merit
of having placed a rich array of facts at the disposal of science ; from the day
when they took it in hand must we date the thorough research into what has been
somewhat too hastily called the original conditions of the human race.
While we are duly thankful for these pioneering achievements, we cannot
reconcile ourselves to their conclusions. They look for origin and " development "
everywhere. Are we not entitled, on scientific territory, to meet with a certain
mistrust such a search, which knows so well beforehand what it i^ going to find ?
Experience teaches us how near to this lies the danger of premature assumption.
A man whose head is full of one possibility holds others very cheap. If the
inquirer, steeped in the idea of evolution, finds a race which in several or even
many respects is behind its neighbours, the " behind " is involuntarily converted
into " below " ; it is regarded as on a lower round of the ladder by which mankind
have ascended from their original state to the heights of civilization. That is the
counterpart of the one-sided, nay, extravagant notion that man came into the
world a civilized being, but that a retrogressive degeneration has made him what
we find to-day among " natural " races. Just as the idea of evolution found its
chief adherents among physical students, so, for reasons which we can easily divine,
did this notion of retrogression appeal to students of religion and language.
Meanwhile it has at the present day been pushed far, in our view too far, into the
background. Inquiry has far less to dread from it than from the opinion most
i6
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
decidedly opposed to it, of which the fundamental conception expressed in its
basest and most abstract form would be somewhat as follows : " In mankind there
exists only upward effort,
progress, development ;
no retreat, no decay, no
dying out." Put in this
way, do we not at once
see how one-sided is
such a way of looking
at things ? It is true
that only extremists go
so far in this direction,
and Darwin, who, as a
great creator of ideas,
held his views with the
fullest sense of propor-
tion, admits that many
nations may undoubt-
edly have gone back in
their civilization, some
even fallen into utter
barbarism ; although, he
cautiously adds, he has
found no evidence for
the latter case. But
even he, in his Descent
of Man, has not always.
been able to escape the
temptation to imagine
mankind more various
in itself and reaching'
in its supposed lowest
members more nearly
down to the brute world
than on cooler reflection
appears possible. I
Here we see the two
extreme conceptions of
natural races. We can
understand how funda-
mentally different must
be the resulting modesi
of considering every side
of their existence, or
fiitiTrP T?^,- ,„t,o^ A-cc , estimating their past and
IssSns ther^ thif 1 T K ,"" ^" ^''^'^' *^^" ^^^^^^ ^ conception which
ofthe lonTand diffi'lt JT "' "'"' ^" *'^ ^^P^'^^^^^^ ^^-^ have matured
on the long and difficult road between their position and ours are as yet unde- '
Young girl of the Mountain Damara tribe. (From a photograph
belonging to the Barmen Mission, j '^ ^ ^^
POSITION OF NATURAL RACES AMONG MANKIND 17
veloped, and one which regards them as it were on the same line with us, at an
equal or similar stage of evolution, but robbed by ill-luck of a large part of their
share of culture, and thus impoverished, miserable, and in arrear ? May we be
permitted to examine the facts at first hand, and to approach a little nearer to
the mean where the truth lies than it has been granted these hypotheses to do.
The question which first occurs is that of innate physical distinctions, since
these must enable us to form the most trustworthy conclusions as to the nature
and magnitude of the general difference to be observed among mankind. But that
is a matter of anatomy and physiology, and as such concerns the anthropologist
rather than us. For separate facts and all wider excursions in the field our
readers must be referred to books on the subject. From our ethnographical
point of view, from which the great distinctions in human civilization, with their
important results, are most clearly to be recognised, the first thing we wish is that
the notion of culture -races, in respect of mankind, might be somewhat more
thoroughly tested than has yet been done. It would, we may safely predict, be
found first of all that qualities appear in the bodily frame of civilizgd races due
to the fact of their civilization, just as on the other hand the bodies of natural 1
races have certain features clearly indicating the operation of a mode of life
marked by the lack of all that we are used to call culture. Gustav Fritsch, an
anatomist who has studied the natural races in their natural state, asserts that
the shapely development of the human body is only possible under the influence
of civilization ; and readers of his descriptions of Hottentots, Bushmen, and even
Kaffirs, will feel convinced that well-developed bodies, such as a sculptor would
call beautiful, are rarer among them than among us, the " played-out " children of
civilization. He states plainly in one place that the healthy, normally-developed
German, both as to proportions and as to strength and completeness of form,
surpasses in fact the average Bantu man.^ The Bantus, we may add, are, in the
Kaffir branch of which he is here speaking, one of the toughest and most powerful
races of Africa. In recent times we have often heard similar judgments ; and
the saying of an American ethnographer, that the Indians are the best model of
the Apollo Belvedere, cannot pass even as a flower of speech. Deeper investiga-
tions have shown differences in the skeleton referable in the one case to the
influences of civilized, in the other to those of uncivilized, life. Virchow has
plainly noted Lapps and Bushmen as " pathological " races, that is, impoverished
and degraded by hunger and want. But the most important experiment for
settling the value of racial distinctions — one for which the resources of science
are too small, and only the history of the world suffices — is now for the first time
in progress. The introduction of the so-called lower races into the circle of the
higher civilization, and the overthrow of the barriers which once were raised high
against such introduction, is not only a brilliant feat of humanity, but at the same
time an event of the deepest scientific interest. For the first time m.illions of
what was considered the lowest race — the blacks — have had all the advantages,
all the rights and duties of the highest civilization thrown open to them ; nothing
prevents them from employing all the means of self-formation which — and herein
lies the anthropological interest of the process — will necessarily be transformation.
' [One would be curious to see the result of a fight between equal forces of normally-developed Germans
and average Zulus or Matabeles, firearms being barred. The question of relative beauty is one which each
race will answer differently.]
C
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
If we could say to-day with approximate certainty, what will become in the
course of generations of the 12,000,000 of negrd slaves who have within the
last thirty years been freed in America, and who will, in the enjoyment of freedom
and the most modern acquisitions of culture, have multiplied to 100,000,000,
we could with certainty answer the question as to the effect of culture upon race-
distinctions. But as it is, we must be content with hints and conjectures.
It may be safely asserted that the study of comparative ethnology in recent
years has tended to diminish the weight of the traditionally-accepted views of
anthropologists as to racial distinctions, and that in any
case they afford no support to the view which sees in
the so-called lower races of mankind a transition-stage
from beast to man. The general similarity of man to
the brutes in bodily structure cannot indeed be con-
tested ; what we demur to is the assumption that
individual portions of mankind are so much more like
the beasts than others. In our study of people of
whatever race we come upon traits that may be called
bestial ; but this is only what was to be expected. Since
man has retained in his bodily structure so close a
resemblance to the apes that even the most recent
classifiers have attached importance to this only, and
might, without fear of blame for illogicality, recur to the
old Linnaean grouping of the genus homo with the Apes
in an order of Primates, a reduction of the spiritual
element in human nature is quite enough to allow the
bestial part of the material foundation to emerge in a
pretty glaring form. We all, alas ! are familiar with
the idea that a beast lies hidden in every man, and
" brutality," " brutalisation," and other only too familiar
terms, prove how frequently our fancy is called upon for
corresponding images. When a starving family of Australian aborigines retrieves
from the vulture a piece of carrion, which by all natural rights has long been his
property, and flings itself like a pack of greedy, jackals on its prey, gorging until
repletion compels slumber, this testifies to a brutality in their mode of life which
suppresses all movements of the soul. Nor are we surprised when African
travellers can compare a startled swarm of Bushmen, who see an enemy in every
stranger, black or white, with nothing else than a troop of chimp,anzees or orangs
in flight. We must not, however, let all our blows fall on these poor "natural"
races who have on the whole no greater naturally-implanted tendency towards the
bestial than we ourselves. There exist Europeans who are morally degraded
below the level of the Australians. This sad faculty of being or becoming like
the brutes is unhappily present in all men, in some a little more, in others a little
less. Whether it manifests itself with more or less frequency and plainness
depends merely upon the degree of acquired capacity for dissimulation, which
often corresponds to that of civilization. But it is civilization alone which can
draw any boundary between us and the " natural " races. We may declare in the
most decided manner that the conception of "natural" races involves nothing
anthropological or physiological, but is purely one of ethnography and civiliza-
Steel Axe of European make with
old bone handle, from New
Zealand. (Christy Collection.)
POSITION OF NATURAL RACES AMONG MANKIND
19
tion. Natural races are nations poor in culture. There may be peoples belonging
to every race, endowed by nature in every degree, who either have not yet pro-
gressed to civilization, or have retrograded in respect of it. The old Germans and
Gauls appeared no less uncivilized beside Roman civilization than do Kaffirs or
Polynesians beside ours ; and many a people which to-day is reckoned as a portion
of civilized Russia was at the time of Peter the Great still in a state of nature.
Ainu beside one of their store-huts. (From a photograph in the possession of Freiherr von Siebold, Vienna. )
The gap which differences of civilization create between two groups of human
beings is in truth quite independent, whether in its depth or in its breadth, of the
differences in their mental endowments. We need only observe what a mass of
accidents has operated in all that determines the height of the stage of civilization
reached by a people, or in the total sum of their civilization, to guard ourselves
with the utmost care from drawing hasty conclusions as to their equipment either
in body, intellect, or soul. Highly-gifted races can be poorly equipped with all that
makes for civilization, and so may produce the impression of holding a low position
20 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
in
among mankind. Chinese and Mongols belong to the same stock ; but what a
difference in their civilization. This is even more apparent if, instead of the
Mongols, we take any of the barbarian tribes which, in the frontier provinces of
China stand out like islands from a sea of more highly-civilized people, who lap them
round' and will soon overwhelm them. Or again, the latest researches make it
probable that many of the Ainu, the aborigines of the northern island of Japan, stand
nearer to the Caucasian than to the Mongolian stock. Yet they are a " natural "
race even in the eyes of Mongolic Japanese. Race as such has nothing to do with
the 'possession of civilization. It would be silly to deny that in our own times
the highest civilization has been in the hands of the Caucasian, or white, races ;
but, on the other hand, it is an equally important fact that for thousands of years
in all civilizing movements there has been a dominant tendency to raise all races
to the level of their burdens and duties, and therewith to make real earnest of the
great conception of humanity — a conception which has been proclaimed as a
specially distinguishing attribute of the modern world, but of which many still do
not believe in the realisation. But let us only look outside the border of the brief
and narrow course of events which we arrogantly call the history of the world, and
we shall have to recognise that members of every race have borne their part i"
the history which lies beyond, the history of primeval and pre-historic times.
§ 4. NATURE, RISE, AND SPREAD OF CIVILIZATION
Natural and civilized races — Language and religion universal possessions — Races with and without history-
Reasons why many races are in a backward state — The development of civilization is a matter of hoarding
— So-called semi-civilization — Material and spiritual elements in hoarded civilization — The material basis
and the spiritual nucleus — Natural conditions required for development — The part of agriculture and pasture
in the development of civilized politics — Zones of civilization — Loss of civilization.
What is then the essential distinction which separates natural and civilized races ?
Upon this question the evolutionist faces us with alacrity, and declares that it was
done with long ago ; for who can doubt that the natural or savage races are the
oldest strata of mankind now existing? They are survivors from the uncultured
ages out of which other portions of mankind, who have in the struggle for existence
forced their way to higher endowments and have acquired a richer possession of
culture, have long ago emerged. This assumption we meet with the question :
Wherein then does this possession of culture consist? Is not reason, the basis,
nay, the source of it all, the common property of the human race ? To language
and religion, as in some measure the noblest forms of expression, we must give
the precedence over all others, and connect them closely with reason. In the fine
expression of Hamann : " Without speech we could have had no reason, without
reason no religion, and without these three essential components of our nature
neither intelligence nor the bond of society." It is certain that language has
exercised an influence reaching beyond our sight upon the education of the human
spirit. As Herder says : " We must regard the organ of speech as the rudder of
our reason, and see in talk the heavenly spark which gradually kindled into flame
our senses and thoughts." No less certainly does the religion of the less civilized
races contain in itself all the germs which are hereafter to form the noble flowery
NATURE, RISE, AND SPREAD OF CIVILIZATION
forest of the spiritual life among civilized races. It is at once art and science,
theology and philosophy, so that that civilized life which strives from however
great a distance to reach the ideal contains nothing which is not embraced by it.
Of the priests of these races the saying holds good in the truest sense that they
are the guardians of the divine mysteries. But the subsequent dissemination of
these mysteries among the people, the popularising of them in the largest sense, is
the clearest and deepest-reaching indication of progress in culture. Now while no
man doubts of the general possession of reason by his fellow-men of every race and
degree, while the equally general
existence of language is a fact,
and it is not, as was formerly
believed, the case that the more
simply constructed languages
belong to the lower races, the
richest to those who stand high-
est ; the existence of religion
among savage races has been
frequently doubted. It will be
one of our tasks in the following
pages to prove the unfounded-
ness of this assumption in the
light of many facts. For the
present we , will venture to as-
sume the universality of at least
some degree of religion.
In matters connected with
political and economical insti-
tutions we notice among the
natural races very great differ-
ences in the sum of their
civilization. Accordingly we
have to look among them not
only for the beginnings of
civilization, but for a very great
part of its evolution, and it is
■equally certain that these differences are to be referred less to variations in endow-
ment than to great differences in the conditions of their development. Exchange
has also played its part, and unprejudiced observers have often been more struck
in the presence of facts by agreement than by difference. " It is astonishing,"
exclaims Chapman, when considering the customs of the Damaras, "what a
similarity there is in the manners and practices of the human family throughout
the world. Even here, the two different classes of Damaras practise rites in
•common with the New Zealanders, such as that of chipping out the front teeth
and cutting off the little finger." It is less astonishing if, as the same traveller
remarks, their agreement with the Bechuanas goes even further. Now since the
essence of civilization lies first in the amassing of experiences, then in the fixity
with which these are retained, and lastly in the capacity to carry them further or
to increase them, our first question must be, how is it possible to realise the first
Ambuella Drum. (After Serpa
Pinto.)
Igorrote Drum from Luzon.
(From the collection of
Dr. Hans Meyer. )
22 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
fundamental condition of civilization, namely, the amassing a stock of culture in
the form of handiness, knowledge, power, capital ? It has long been agreed that
the first step thereto is the transition from complete dependence upon what
Nature freely offers to a conscious exploitation, through man's own labour,
especially in agriculture or cattle-breeding, of such of her fruits as are most
important to him. This transition opens at one stroke all the most remote pos-
sibilities of Nature, but we must always remember, at the same time, that it is still
a long way from the first step to the height which has now been attained.
The intellect of man and also the intellect of whole races shows a wide dis-
crepancy in regard to differences of endowment as well as in regard to the different
effects which external circumstances produce upon it. Especially are there varia-
tions in the degree of inward coherence and therewith of the fixity or duration of
the stock of intellect. The want of coherence, the breaking-up of this stock,
characterises the lower stages of civilization no less than its coherence, its inalien-
ability, and its power of growth do the higher. We find in low stages a poverty
of tradition which allows these races neither to maintain a consciousness of their
earlier fortunes for any appreciable period nor to fortify and increase their stock >
of intelligence either through the acquisitions of individual prominent minds or
through the adoption and fostering of any stimulus. Here, if we are not entirely
mistaken, is the basis of the deepest-seated differences between races. The
opposition of historic and non-historic races seems to border closely upon it.
But are historical facts therefore lost to history when their memory has not been
preserved in writing ? The essence of history consists in the very fact of
happening, not in the recollecting and recording what has happened. We shoqld
prefer to carry this distinction back to the opposition between national life in its
atoms and national life organised, since the deepest distinction seems to be
indicated by internal coherence which occurs in the domain of historical fact, and
therefore mainly in the domain of intellect. The intellectual history of mankind
no less than the social and political is in the first place a progression fi-omf
individual to united action. And in truth it is in the first place external nature^
upon which the intellect of man educates itself, seeing that he strives to put
himself towards it in an attitude of recognition, the ultimate aim of which is the
construction within himself of an orderly representation of Nature, that is the*'
creation of art, poetry, and science.
Showing as they do every possible variety of racial affinity, the " natural 'f '
races cannot be said to form a definite group in the anatomical or anthropological
sense. Since in the matter of language and religion they share in the highest
good that culture can offer, we must not assign them a place at the root of the
human family-tree, nor regard their condition as that of a primitive race, or of
childhood. There is a distinction between the quickly ripening immaturity of the
child and the limited maturity of the adult who has come to a stop in many
respects. What we mean by " natural " races is something much more like the
latter than the former. We call them races deficient in civilization, because
internal and external conditions have hindered them from attaining to such
permanent developments in the domain of culture as form the mark of the true
civilized races and the guarantees of progress. Yet we should not venture to
call any of them cultureless, so long as none of them is devoid of the primitive
means by which the ascent to higher stages can be made — language, religion, fire
NATURE, RISE, AND SPREAD OF CIVILIZATION
23
weapons implements ; while the very possession of these means, and many others
such as domestic animals and cultivated plants, testifies to varied and numerous
deahngs with those races which are completely civilized.
Queensland Abongines
(From a photograph. )
The reasons why they do not make use of these gifts are of many kinds
Lower intellectual endowment is often placed in the first rank. That is a
convenient, but not quite fair explanation. Among the savage races of to-day
we find great diiiferences in endowments. We need not dispute that in the course
24 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
of development races of even slightly higher endowments have got possession of
more and more means of culture.iand gained steadiness and security for their
progress, while the less-endowed remained behind. But external conditions, in
respect to their furthering or hindering effects, can be more clearly recognised and
estimated ; and it is juster and more logical to name them first. We can conceive
why the habitations of the savage races are principally to be found on the extreme
borders of the inhabited world, in the cold and hot regions, in remote islands, in
secluded mountains, in deserts. We understand their backward condition in parts
of the earth which offer so few facilities for agriculture and cattle-breeding as
Australia, the Arctic regions, or the extreme north and south of America. In the
insecurity of incompletely developed resources, we can see the chain which hangs
heavily on their feet, and confines their movements within a narrow space. As a
consequence, their numbers are small, and from this again results the small total
amount of intellectual and physical accomplishment, the rarity of eminent men.
the absence of the salutary pressure exercised by surrounding masses on the
activity and forethought of the individual, which operates in the division of
society into classes, and the promotion of a wholesome division of labour. A
partial consequence of this insecurity of resources is the instability of natural
races. A nomadic strain runs through them all, rendering easier to them the utter
incompleteness of their unstable political and economical institutions, even when
an indolent agriculture seems to tie them to the soil. Thus it often comes about
that in spite of abundantly-provided and well-tended means of culture, their life is
desultory, wasteful of power, unfruitful. This life has no inward consistency, no
secure growth ; it is not the life in which the germs of civilization first grew up to
the grandeur in which we frequently find them at the beginnings of what we call
history. It is full rather of fallings-away from civilization, and dim memories
from civilized spheres which in many cases must have existed long before the
commencement of history as we have it. If, in conclusion, we are to indicate
concisely how we conceive the position of these races as, compared with those to
which we belong, we should say, from the point of view of civilization these races
form a stratum below us, while in natural parts and dispositions they stand in
some respects, so far as can be seen, on a level with us, in others not much lower.
But this idea of a stratum must not be understood in the sense of forming the
next lower stage of development through which we ourselves had to pass, but as
combined and built up of elements which have remained persistent, mingled with
others which have been pushed aside or dropped into the rear. There is thus a
strong nucleus of positive attributes in the " natural " races ; and therein lies the
value and advantage of studying them. The negative conception which sees only
what they lack in comparison with us is a short-sighted under-estimate.
By the word " civilization " or " culture '' we denote usually the sum of all the
acquirements at a given time of the human intelligence. When we speak of
stages, of higher and lower, of semi-civilization, of civilized and " natural " races, we
apply to the various civilizations of the earth a standard which we take from the
degree that we have ourselves attained. Civilization means our civilization. Let
us assume that the highest and richest display of what we conceive by the term is
to be found among ourselves, and it must appear of the highest importance for
the understanding of the thing itself to trace back the unfolding of this flower to
its germ. We shall only attain our aim of getting an insight into the nature and
NATURE, RISE, AND SPREAD OF CIVILIZATION 25
essence of civilisation when we understand the impelling force which has evolved
it from its first beginning.
Every people has intellectual gifts, and develops them in its daily life. Each
can claim a certain sum of knowledge and power which represents its civilization.
But the difference between the various " sums of acquirement of the intelligence "
resides not only in their magnitude, but in their power of growth. To use an
image, a civilized race is like a mighty tree which in the growth of centuries has
raised itself to a bulk and permanency far above the lowly and transitory condition
of races deficient in civilization. There are plants which die off every year, and
others that from herbs become mighty trees. The distinction lies in the power
of retaining, piling up, and securing the results of each individual year's growth.
So would even this transitory growth of savage races — which have in fact been
jCalled the undergrowth of peoples — beget something permanent, draw every new
generation higher towards the light, and afford it firmer supports in the achieve-
ments of predecessors, if the impulse to retain and secure were operative in it.
But this is lacking ; and so it befalls that all these plants destined for a larger
growth remain on the ground and perish in misery, striving for the air and light
which above they might have enjoyed to the full. Civilization is the product of
many generations of men.
The confinement, in space as in time, which isolates huts, villages, races, no
less than successive generations, involves the negation of culture ; in its opposite,
the intercourse of contemporaries and the interdependence of ancestors and
successors, lies the possibility of development. The union of contemporaries
secures the retention of culture, the linking of generations its unfolding. The
development of civilization is a process of hoarding. The hoards grow of them-
selves so soon as a retaining power watches over them. In all domains of
human creation and operation we shall see the basis of all higher development
in intercourse. Only through co-operation and mutual help, whether between
contemporaries, whether from one generation to another, has mankind succeeded in
climbing to the stage of civilization on which its highest members now stand. On
the nature and extent of this intercourse the growth depends. Thus the numerous
small assemblages of equal importance, formed by the family stocks, in which the
individual had no freedom, were less favourable to it than the larger communi-
ties and states of the modern world, with their encouragement to individual
competition.
As the essential feature in the highest development of culture, we note the
largest and most intimate interdependence among themselves and with past
generations of all fellow-strivers after it ; and as a result of it, the largest possible
sum of achievement and acquisition. Between this and the opposite extreme lie
all the intermediate stages which we comprise under the name " semi-civilization."
This notion of a " half-way house " deserves a few words. When we see energetic-
ally at work in the highest civilization the forces which retain, as well as those
concerned with extending and reshaping, the building, in semi-civilization it is
essentially the former which are called into most activity, while the latter remain
behind and thereby bring about the inferiority of that state of things. The one-
sidedness and incompleteness of semi-civilization lie on the side of intellectual
progress, while on the material side development sets in sooner. Two hundred
years ago, when Europe and North America had not yet taken the giant's stride
26 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
which steam, iron, and electricity have rendered possible, China and Japan caused
the greatest astonishment to European travellers by their achievements in
agriculture, manufactures, and trade, and even by their canals and roads, which
have now fallen far towards dilapidation. But Europeans, and the daughter races
in America and Australia, have in the last two hundred years not only caught up
this start, but gone far ahead. Here we may perceive the solution of the riddle
presented by Chinese civilization, both in the height it has reached and its
stationary character, and indeed by all semi-civilization. What but the light in
free intellectual creation has made the west so far outrun the east ? Voltaire
hits the point when he says that Nature has given the Chinese the organs for
I discovering all that is useful to them but not for going any further. They have
become great in the useful, in the arts of practical life ; while we are indebted to
them for no one deeper insight into the connection and causes of phenomena, for
no single theory.
Does this lack arise from a deficiency in their endowments, or does it lie in
the rigidity of their social and political organisation, which favours mediocrity and
suppresses genius ? Since it is maintained through all changes of their organisa-
tion, we must decide for the defect in their endowments, which also is the sole
cause of the rigidity in their social system. No doubt the future alone can give
a decisive answer, for it will in the first place have to be shown whether and how
far these races will progress on the ways of civilization which Europe and North
America vie in pointing out to them ; for there has long been no doubt that they
will or must set foot on them. But we shall not come to the solution of this
question if we approach it from the point of view of complete civilization, which
sees in the incompleteness of China and Japan the signs of a thoroughly lower
stage of the whole of life, and frequently at the same time signs of an entire
absence of hope in all attempts at a higher flight. If they possess in themselves
only the capacities for semi-civilization, the need of progress will bring more powerful
organs to their head and gradually modify the mass of the people by immigration
from Europe and North America. This process may have first raised to its present
height many a civilized race of to-day; we may refer to the Russians and
Hungarians, and to the fact that millions of German, and other immigrants have
stimulated in many ways the progress of these semi-Mongols in Europe.
The sum of the acquirements of civilization in every stage and in every race
is composed of material and intellectual possessions. It is important to keep
' them apart, since they are of very different significance for the intrinsic value of
the total civilization, and above all for its capacity of development. They are not
acquired with like means nor with equal ease, nor simultaneously. The material
lies at the base of the intellectual. Intellectual creations come as the luxury
after bodily needs are satisfied. Every question, therefore, as to the origin of
civilization resolves itself into the question : what favours the development of its
material foundations ? Now here we must in the first place proclaim that when
the way to this development is once opened by the utilisation of natural means
for the aims of man, it is not Nature's wealth in material but in force or rather, to
put it better, in stimulus to force, — which must be most highly estimated. The
gifts of Nature most valuable for man are those through which his latent
sources of force are thrown open in permanent activity. Obviously this can
least be brought about by that wealth or so-called bounty of Nature which spares
NATURE, RISE, AND SPREAD OF CIVILIZATION 27
him certain labours that under other circumstances would be necessary. The
warmth of the tropics makes the task of housing and clothing himself much
lighter than in the temperate zone. If we compare the possibilities which Nature
can afford with those that dwell in the spirit of man, the distinction is very-
forcible, and lies mainly in the following directions. The gifts of Nature in them-
selves are in the long run unchangeable in kind and quantity, but the supply of
the most necessary varies from year to year and cannot be reckoned on. They
are bound up with certain external circumstances, confined to certain zones,
particular elevations, various kinds of soil. Man's power over them is originally
limited by narrow barriers which he can widen but never break down by develop-
ing the forces of his intellect and will. His own forces, on the contrary, belong
entirely to him. He cannot only dispose of their application but can also
multiply and strengthen them without any limit that has, at least up to the
present, been drawn. Nothing gives a more striking lesson of the way in which
the utilisation of Nature depends upon the will of man than the likeness of the
conditions in which all savage races live in all parts of the earth, in all climates,
in all altitudes.
It is due to no accident that the word " culture " also denotes the tillage of the
ground. Here is its etymological root ; here, too, the root of all that we under-
stand by it in its widest sense.^ The storage by means of labour of a sum of
force in a clod of earth is the best and most promising beginning of that non-
dependence upon Nature which finds its mark in the domination of her by the
intellect. It is thus that link is most easily added to link in the chain of develop-
ment, for in the yearly repetition of labour on the same soil creative force is
concentrated and tradition secured ; and thus the fundamental conditions of
civilization come to birth.
The natural conditions which permit the amassing of wealth from the fertility
of the soil and the labour bestowed thereon, are thus undoubtedly of the greatest
importance in the development of civilization. But it is unsafe to say with Buckle
that there is no example in history of a country that has become civilized by its
own exertions without possessing some one of those conditions in a highly
favourable form. For the first existence of mankind, warm moist regions blessed
with abundance of fruits were unquestionably most desirable, and it is easiest to
conceive of the original man as a dweller in the tropics. But, on the other hand,
if we are to conceive of civilization as a development of human forces upon Nature
and by means of Nature, this can only have come about through some compulsion
setting man amid less favourable conditions where he had to look after himself
with more care than in the soft cradle of the tropics. This points to the temperate
zones, in which we may no less surely see the cradle of civilization than in the
tropics that of the race. In the high plateaux of Mexico and Upper Peru we
have land less fruitful than the surrounding lowlands, and accordingly in these
plateaux we find the highest development in all America. Even now, with
cultivation carried to a high pitch, they look as dry and barren as steppes
compared with the luxuriant natural beauties of many places in the lowlands,
or on the terraces not a day's journey distant. In tropical and sub-tropical
^ [Of course its employment to denote the cultivation or refinement of the mind and manners (which though
found in classical Latin seems comparatively recent in English) is a mere metaphor, without any suggestion of
the fact noticed in this paragraph.]
28 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
•countries the fertility of the soil generally diminishes at high elevations, and in
whatever climatic conditions, high plateaux are never so fruitful as lowland, hilly
countries, and mountain slopes. Now these civilizations were both situated on
high plateaux ; of that in Mexico, the centre and capital, Tenochtitlan — the
modern city of Mexico — lay at a height of 7560 feet, while Cuzco, in Peru,
is no less than 11,500. In both these regions temperature and rainfall are
considerably lower than in the greater part of Central and South America.
This brings us to the recognition of the fact that, though civilization in its
first growth is intimately connected with the cultivation of the soil, as it develops
farther there is no necessary relation between the two. As a nation grows its
civilization sets itself free from the soil, and, in proportion as it develops, creates
for itself ever fresh organs which serve for other purposes than enabling it to take
root. One might say that in agriculture there resides a natural weakness, which
may be explained not only through want of familiarity with weapons, but through
the desire of possession and a settled life enfeebling to courage and enterprise.
We find, on the contrary, the highest expression of political force among the
hunter and shepherd races, who are in many respects the natural antipodes of the
agriculturists — the shepherds especially, who unite agility with the faculty of
moving in masses, and discipline with force. The very faculties which are a
hindrance to the agriculturist in developing that power, can here be turned to
advantageous account, — the absence of settled abode, mobility, the exercise of
strength, courage, and skill with weapons. And, as we look over the earth, we find
that in fact the firmest organisations among the so-called semi-civilized races result
from a blend of these elements. The distinctly agricultural Chinese have been
ruled first by the Mongols, then by the Mantchus ; the Persians by sovereigns
from Turkestan ; the Egyptians successively by Hyksos, or shepherd kings, Arabs,
and Turks — all nomadic races. In Central Africa the nomadic Wahuma founded
and maintained the stable states of Uganda and Unyoro, while in the countries
that surround the Soudan every single state was founded by invaders from the
desert. In Mexico the rougher Aztecs subdued the more refined agricultural
Toltecs. In the history of places in the borderland between the steppe and
cultivated lands a series of cases will be found establishing this rule, which may
be recognised as a historical law. Thus the reason why the less fertile high
plateaux and the districts nearest to them have been so favourable to the develop-
ment of higher civilization and the formation of civilized states, is not because they
offered a cooler climate and consequent inducement to agriculture, but because they
brought about the union of the conquering and combining powers of the nomads
-with the industry and labour of the agriculturists who crowded into the oases of
cultivation but could not form states. That lakes have played a certain part 2.% points
(Tappui and centres of crystallisation for such states, as seen in the cases of Lake
Titicaca in Peru, the lagoons of Tezcoco and Chalco in Mexico, Lakes Ukerewe
and Tchad in the interior of Africa, is an interesting but less essential phenomenon.
Beyond the historic operation of climatic peculiarities in favouring or checking
civilization, diff-erences of climate interfere most eff-ectually by producing large
regions where similar conditions prevail— regions of civilization which are disposed
hke a belt round the globe. These may be called civilized zones. The real zone
of civilization, according to all the experience which history up to the present day
puts at the disposal of mankind, is the temperate. More than one group of facts
NATURE, RISE, AND SPREAD OF CIVILIZATION
29
corroborates this. The most important historical developments, most organically
connected, most steadily progressing in and by means of this connection, and
externally most exciting, belong to this zone. That it was no accident which made
the heart of ancient history beat in this zone on the Mediterranean Sea, we may
learn from the persistency of the most effective historical development in the
temperate zone even after the circle of history had been widened beyond Europe,
ay, even after the transplantation of European culture to those new worlds which
sprang up in America, Africa, and Australia. No doubt an
infinite number of threads are plaited into this great web ,
but since all that races do rests ultimately upon the deeds of
individuals, the one which has been most fruitful in results is
undoubtedly the crowding together in the temperate zone of
the greatest possible number of individuals most capable of
achievement, and the arrangement in succession and compre
hension of the individual civilized districts in one civilized
belt, where the conditions were most favourable to inter-
course, exchange, the increasing and securing of the store of
culture ; where, in other words, the maintenance and develop
ment of culture could display its activity on the largest
geographical foundation.
Old semi -civilizations, whose relics we meet with in
tropical countries, belong to a period when civilization did
not make such mighty demands upon the labours of indi
viduals, and when for that very reason its blossom sooner
faded. A study of the geographical extension of old and
new civilization seems to show that as the tastes of civiliza
tion grew, the belt comprising it shrank into the regions
where the great capacity for achievement co-existed with the
temperate climates. This observation is important for the
history of the primitive human race and of its extension, and
for the interpretation of the relics of civilization in tropical
countries. Another mode in which civilization may perish is
through the absorption of higher races by lower, who profit
by the advantage of better adaptation to conditions of hard-
ship. The despised Skraelings have merged themselves in
the Northmen of Greenland. And has not every group of
Europeans that has penetrated the Arctic ice-wastes, during
the period of its stay in those dreary fields, been obliged to accustom itself
to Eskimo habits, and to learn the arts and dexterities of the Arctic people in
order successfully to maintain the fight with Nature's powers in the Polar zone ?
But so has many a bit of colonisation on tropical and polar soil ended in falling
to the level of the wants of the natives. The colonising power of the Portuguese
in Africa, the Russians in Asia, lies in their ability to do this more effectually
than their competitors.
Yet a civilization, self-contained and complete, even with imperfect means, is
morally and aesthetically a higher phenomenon than one which is. decomposing in
the process of upward effort and growth. For this reason the first results of the
contact between a higher and a lower civilization are not delightful where the
Indian Mirror from Texas,
(Stoclcholm Ethnograph-
ical Museum. )
30 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
higher is represented by the scum of a world, the lower by people complete in a
narrow space and contented with the filling up of their own narrow circle. Think
of the first settlements of whalers and runaway sailors in countries rich in art and
tradition like New Zealand and Hawaii, and of the effects produced by the first
brandy-shop and brothel. In the case of North America, Schoolcraft first pointed
out the rapid decay which befell all native industrial activity as a result of the
introduction by the white men of more suitable tools, vessels, clothing, and so
forth. European trade provided easily everything which hitherto had had to be
produced by dint of long-protracted, wearisome labour ; ^ and native activity not
only fell off in the field where it had achieved important results, but saw itself
weakened, and lost the sense of necessity and self-reliance, and so in course of
time art itself perished. As we know, the same is going on to-day in Polynesia,
in Africa, and among the poorest Eskimo. In Africa it is a declared rule that on
the coast you have a region of decomposition, behind that a higher civilization,
and the best of all in the untouched far interior. Even the art of Japan,
independent as it was, deteriorated after a glimpse of artistically inferior European
patterns.
§ s. LANGUAGE
Language is a universal faculty of modern mankind — Power of natural races to learn languages — Changes in
languages — Is there a relation between racial and linguistic peculiarities ? — Origin, growth, and decay of
language— Fossil words : dialect and language— Relation between language and degree of civilization-
Poor and rich languages — Modes of expressing number and colour — Gesture — Speech — Writing.
" Man is so endowed, so circumstanced, and such is his history, that speech is
everywhere and without exception his possession. And as speech is the property
of all men, so is it the privilege of humanity ; only man possesses speech."
Thus Herder; and we may add that mankind possesses it in no materially different
measure. Every people can learn the language of every other. We see daily
examples of the complete mastery of foreign languages, and therein the civilized
races have no absolute superiority over the savage. Many of the persons in high
position in Uganda speak Swahili, some Arabic ; many of the Nyamwesi have
learnt the same language. In the trading centres of the West African coast
there are Negroes enough who know two or three languages ; and in the Indian
schools in Canada nothing astonishes the missionaries so much as the ease with
which the youthful Redskin picks up French and English.
The media of language, sounds no less than the accompanying gestures, are
very similar all the earth over; and the inner structure of language not very
discrepant. It may be said that human language is one at the root, which strikes
deep into the human mind ; but it has parted into many very various branches and
twigs. Innumerable languages, diverging from each other in every degree, dialects,
sister and daughter languages, independent families of languages, fill the homes
and homesteads of mankind with varied tones. Some races can still pretty well
understand each other ; in some languages, a little farther removed, even a
1 [Cf. Lang, Myth, Ritual, and Religion, vol. i. p. 187, " He created the white man to make tools for
the poor Indians," said the Winnibagoes to a white inquirer.]
LANGUAGE 31
superficial observer detects similarities ; in others these lie so deep that only-
science can find them. Lastly, a great number are to all appearance quite
different — not only in the words but in their structure, in the relations they
express, the parts of speech which they distinguish. But these distinctions are
by no means associated with mental differences in the speakers. Individuals of every
variety of endowment use the same language, while minds equally endowed and
working on the same lines cannot make themselves understood to each other.
Nor does language go with geographical, often not with racial, distinctions. How
much wider is the gap between the Englishman and the English-speaking Negro
than that between the Chinese and the Micronesian who linguistically is so far
from him ! The importance of language to ethnology must be sought elsewhere
than in proof of racial affinity based on affinity of speech. Language must
always appear as the preliminary condition to all the work of civilization among
mankind. It may be called the first and most important, even the characteristic,
implement of man. But, like every other tool, it is liable to alteration. In the
course of centuries a word can assume very various meanings, can disappear
altogether, can be replaced by some expressly-invented word, or one taken from
another language. Like a tool, it is laid aside and taken up again. Not only
do individuals lose their mother-tongue, like Narcisse Pelletier who, after twelve
years in the Australian bush, became himself a savage, or the Akka Mianis who,
brought as boys to Italy, had in a few years wholly forgotten their native speech ;
but whole races abandon one language and take to another, as if it were a suit of
clothes. Some of the acquirements of civilization are more permanent than language,
as the science of cattle-breeding. If the comparative study of religion teaches us
that the names change while the thing remains, we may find here good evidence for
the higher degree of changeableness shown by language in comparison with other
ethnographic characteristics. We should not think it necessary to linger over
a point so obvious to all who know anything about the life of races, were it not
that linguistic classification is still apt to be mixed up with anthropology and
ethnography. Even so great an authority on philology as Lepsius has found
it necessary to protest against the notion that races and languages correspond in
origin and affinities, as is still far too largely supposed. " The diffusion and
mingling of races goes its way : that of languages, though constantly affected by
the other, its own — often very different. Languages are the most individual
creation of races, often the most immediate expression of their minds ; but they
often escape from their creators, and overspread great foreign peoples and races,
or die out, while those ' who formerly used them live on, speaking quite other
tongues." It is clear that in the light of such deeper considerations, conceptions
like that of an Indo-Germanic race, a Semitic race, a Bantu race, are not only
valueless, but to be wholly rejected as misleading ; and that, incalculably great as
may have been the value and influence of languages as a support and staff in the
mental development of mankind, their importance as an indication of distinctions
within mankind is uncommonly small. While hunting-savages like the Bushmen
speak a finely-constructed and copious language, we find among the race which has
developed the highest and most permanent civilization of Asia what, according to
evolutionary views, must be a most simple language, — the uninflected Chinese
with its 450 root words, which may be put together like pieces in a puzzle and
taken apart again, remaining all the time unaltered. Under these circumstances
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
it is no doubt possible to make a pedigree of languages, but we cannot be expected
to believe that anything is thereby gained towards the pedigree of mankind, when
we iind a poorly organised language spoken by one of the highest races, and a
highly organised one by one of the lowest. The newer philology appears indeed
to promise less than formerly in the way of a universal pedigree of languages.
Monosyllabic speech, which once grew at the root of the tree of language, is now
thought to owe its poverty and stiffness rather to retrogression than to undevelop-
ment, while the South African clicks, once compared with the chatter of birds and
other animals, are now regarded less as survivals from the brute than as the
characteristic expression of linguistic indolence and decay. We hear no more
about remains of the primitive speech, but see in this domain only development
and retrogression.
The universality of language is the simple result of the fact that all portions
of mankind have existed long enough to develop the germs of their capacity for
speech to the point at which we can apply the term language. Not only
Haeckel's Alali has long passed into oblivion ; all his successors with their
imperfect or childish speech are no more. But here the universalness extends
farther ; modern languages are organised to a very similar pitch. Herein
language is like certain universal arts or implements, which are just as good
among savage as among civilized folk. Does not the like hold good with the
universal spread of the religious idea, the artistic impulse, the simpler utensil ?
At the basis of speech lies the desire to impart ; it is thus the product not of the
single man but of Man in society and history. For the sake of and by means of
imparting we acquire our earliest knowledge : it develops and enriches the
language ; it creates its unity by limiting the exuberance of dialectic variations.
We speak, to be understood ; we hear and learn, to understand ; we speak as is
intelligible, as others do, not as we ourselves want to do. So far speech is the
dearest and most universal sign of the important effect of social life in limiting
individualism.
All languages now existing are old in themselves or descended from old
families ; all bear the traces of historic development ; all are far from their first
origin, and for their interpretation philology has now laid aside the " bow-wow "
theory. Itself drawn from the mobile mouth of the living man, and remaining
close to the mind, the starting-point of living expression, language bears the
stamp of life, constant change. Even if it survives the generations of those who
spoke it, yet it lives with them and undergoes changes ; dying at last itself The
old Egyptian died even before the Egyptian civilization ; old Greek did not long
survive the independent existence of the Greek race ; Latin fell with Rome.'
These three languages did not die childless ; they survive in Coptic, Modern
Greek, and the Romance languages respectively. More rarely do languages perish
without successors as Gothic has done. Yet even this has been survived by
languages nearly akin to it, which represent the family. Basque, standing solitary
1 [This statement seems to need qualification. Muller and Donaldson give several pages of names of "old"
Greek authors subsequent to B. c. 146, including Meleager, Dionysius, Strabo, Philo Judaeus, Epictetus, Plutarch,
Appian, Galen, Lucian, Clement, Eusebius, Chrysostom, Longus, Anna Comnena, Demetrius Chalcondyles. ■
As to Latin, if we knew when the " fall of Rome " occurred we could better test the accuracy of the illustration. .
Certainly the language continued to thrive for nearly 1000 years after the removal of the Emperor's residence
to Byzantium. But to say that a language dies is a misleading metaphor. No one generation notices any
material change.]
LANGUAGE 33
as it does with no near kinship to any contemporary tongue, will die, and with it
a primeval family will become extinct. It is only the mutability of languages
that prevents us from seeing in them the characteristic marks of an old connection,
the support of that uniformity which we find in myths and material objects.
Yet we venture to predict that success will one day attend the effort to ascertain
the elements of speech in their world-wide distribution.
Meantime in the life of every language a gradual dying off and renewal is
taking place in many forms. Words become obsolete, pass out of use, or survive
only in religion and poetry. It has been pointed out that since i6i i, 388 words
have become obsolete in English. There are besides innumerable changes in
pronunciation, spelling, and meaning. Old forms of speech still in use, but long
become unintelligible, are frequent in the unthinking life of the natural races.
Thus a Fijian in battle challenging his opponent, shouts Sai tava 1 Sat tava ! Ka
yau mat ka yavia a bure, that is " Cut up ! Cut up ! the temple receives."
But no man knows what the words mean, though they are held to be very
ancient. How with new things, new words and terms of speech are imported, or
rather import themselves, into language, the age of railways and steamers has
shown ; by their means the language of all civilized races has been enriched with
hundreds of new words. The Azandeh or Nyam-Nyams assert that many v/ords
which were in use among their ancestors are at present no longer employed.
Junker believes in a rapid transformation of the African languages ; while Lepsius
attaches little value to their store of words, and describes even their syntactical
usage as remarkably unstable. Alteration is naturally more frequent in- unwritten
languages than where writing has produced a certain petrifying effect on speech ;
and if we must admit the assertion of philologists that the life-blood of a language
is to be found not in its written form but in dialects, we can understand that we
have to regard languages as organisms no less variable than plants or animals.
While writing tends to fix a language in a given form, the more fruitful and wider
intercourse of races that have writing has at the same time a tendency to widen
the area over which a dialect or a language is distributed. We may put it that
races without writing speak only dialects, while languages are possessed by those
alone who write. But where is the boundary between dialect and language ? At
the present day we understand by a language a dialect which has become fixed
by writing and widely spread by dint of intercourse. Especially is the literary
language rather an artificial than a natural form of speech. Dialects we conceive
as languages less copious, less definitely settled and brought under rule, and hence
more exposed to change, even of an arbitrary kind. But this is only so long as
we compare them with written languages. Of the 300 tribes of the many-
languaged Colchis, to do business with whom the Romans, as Pliny tells us,
required 130 interpreters, which spoke a language, which a dialect ? At this stage
only dialects are spoken, every tribe having its own ; and we need not be so much
surprised at the Colchians when seventy dialects are reckoned in modern Greek.
What produces language and what preserves dialects we can see by comparing
the wide diffusion of Burmese in the thickly-peopled countries of Burma, Pegu,
and Arakan with their brisk commerce, and the far more limited area of languages
in the hill countries of the Upper Irawaddy, where Gordon collected twelve dialects
in the neighbourhood of Manipur alone, and where often thirty or forty families
speak a dialect of their own, unintelligible to others. This is the scale by which
D
34 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
we have to measure the frequent statements as to the immoderate number of
languages among small nations. The multiplicity of the dialects spoken by the
Bushmen which show differences even between groups separated only by a range
of hills or a river, is referred by Moffat exclusively to the fact of their stage of
culture allowing of no common centre, no common interests, in short neither
possessing nor producing anything which might contribute to the fixing of a
standard language. It is interesting to notice that the language of the Bechuana
Bushmen, the Balala, who live as a race of pariahs with and among the
Bechuanas, is a much-altered idiom showing many peculiarities in different groups,
while fheir masters the Bechuanas maintain and propagate their language, the
Sechuana, in a pure form by means of public discussions and frequent meetings
for conversation, singing, and the like.
Yet we must beware of under-estimating the effect of" customary speech, which
also is a conservative force, and assuming a too easy fluidity in linguistic forms.
We learn from Schweinfurth that the Djurs and Bellandas, though far apart, have
preserved the Shillook language almost unaltered. The latter are divided from
the Djurs by the whole breadth of the Bongos, and these again are separated from
the Shillooks. Consider too the slight differences in the most distant Bantu
dialects. We can only assume some great error of observation when S. F,
Waldeck, writing to Jomard in 1833 from the neighbourhood of Palenque, says
that he could no longer use a vocabulary which had only been prepared since
1820. We have good cause to know how carelessly vocabularies often are
compiled. Even in the best of those made by English or Americans for savage
languages a large number of words are, owing to arbitrary transliteration, quite
useless for a Frenchman or German in intercourse with " natives."
In any case, however, it may be taken as a rule that the larger a race is, the
more intimate its intercourse, the more firmly articulated its society, the more
uniform its usages and opinions ; so much more stable will its language be.
Public speaking, popular songs, national laws, oracles, exercise in a lesser degree
the same influence as writing. They set obstacles in the way of the natural
tendency of language to flow into the countless streams of dialect, and give
permanence to speech-formation which, without these external influences, would
have enjoyed but a transitory existence.
These facts show clearly where we have to look for the real and essential
distinctions in the degrees of linguistic development. Permanent growth
enhances the value of language as of civilization. The language which has
means to express anything without becoming obscure through redundancy, which
offers the most complete, most intelligible, and shortest methods of expressing
ideas, whether abstract or concrete, will have reached the highest stage of develop-
ment. And hence it would follow that a thorough parallelism rules between the
development of language and that of culture, since the highest culture requires
and creates the most copious means of spoken expression. Without prejudice to
the varieties in the structure of language, the possessors of the highest culture
will thus speak a language which deserves the name of a first-class implement.
But by this term we do not understand merely that which best fulfils the end for
which it is designed, since the Australian languages in all their poverty perfectly
subserve the simple wants of those who speak them. We rather look upon
languages as special organisms with a development of their own. Just as in the
LANGUAGE 35
class of mechanical tools, we should give the plough a higher rank than the axe,
although the latter fulfils simple needs just as well as the former meets greater
requirements ; so must we hold the supple yet firmly -articulated, clear though
copious languages of the Indo-Germanic family of more account than the poorer
idioms of the Bantu.
But if the language of a race be the measure of the stage of civilization it has
reached, we must be cautious in drawing conclusions from one to the other ; for
language is only one among modes of expression, and has its own life. Least of
all should the mode in which it deals with particular conceptions be taken as
such a measure. Counting and reckoning are doubtless very important 'things,
upon the perfection of which a great deal of the mental development, and
consequently the culture, of a race depends. But in view of the alleged inability
of many savage races to think higher numbers than 3 or 5, attention must
generally be drawn to the fact that the inefficiency of a tool does not always
imply a corresponding inability in the hand using it. In reply to the constant
repetition of the statement that as the languages of these races contain jio numerals
above 3, the people cannot count beyond 3, Bleek has very properly pointed
out that this conclusion is as much justified as would be the conclusion that, as
the French say dix-sept and quatre-vingts, they cannot count beyond 10 or 20.
Greek had a word for 10,000; Hindustanee has words for 100,000 ijac), and
10,000,000 {crore); we have none. The Nubians, who can only count to 20
in their own language, employ Arabic words for higher numbers ; at thq same
time calling 100 by their own word, imil. Just the same holds good in colour-
names, the deficiency of which among many savage races and many peoples of
antiquity was unhesitatingly ascribed to a corresponding deficiency of perception.
Here they started from the unproved assumption that expression corresponds
exactly to perception — in this instance that the number of colour-terms corre-
sponded to that of the various degrees of colour which pass through the retina to
be reproduced in consciousness. Erroneous as is this supposition, it is no less
instructive for the recognition of .the true nature of language, to observe that many
races, otherwise uncultivated, can show an unusually copious list of colour-terms.
Both copiousness and deficiency alike spring from immaturity. We just as often find
the same name used to denote different colours, as the most different names applied
to the same colour. This is merely the copiousness of confusion, and no token of
hio-h development. After testing a native of Queensland, Alfred Kirchhoff wrote :
" It is asserted that the Hottentots have thirty-two words to express colours ; if
so, they are exceeded more than two-fold by these Australians of Queensland, a
list of whose colour-names yielded as many as seventy." A light is thrown on the
way in which this excessive wealth of terms arises by the fact that the greatest
cattle-breeders among the African Negroes, the Hereros, Dinkas and their kin, who
are passionately devoted to that occupation, possess the greatest conceivable choice
of words for all colours — brown, dun, white, dapple, and so on. The Herero has
no scruple about using the same word to denote the colour of the meadows and
of the sky ; but he would regard it as a sign of gross mental incapacity if any one
were to comprise in one word the various gradations of brown in diff"erent cows.
So among the Samoyedes there are eleven or twelve designations for the various
greys and browns of reindeer. The nautical vocabulary of Malays and Polynesians
shows similar development ; but not far off we find great barrenness, the result of
35
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
J]
indolence. Nor is it only " natural " races who are content with one word for
different colours ; the same want of fertility in the formation of language holds
good in higher stages. The peasant of central Germany frequently includes violet
under brown, and the Japanese as a rule calls blue and green indifferently ao.
r\ Requirements decide what the wealth of language shall be.
y^Xj l^O^ For the most civilised among modern European nations the rule
\ I seems to hold that a man of average education actually uses only
Lj a very small part of the words which his language contains. The
English language claims to possess 100,000 words, yet an English
field-labourer gets along as a rule with about 300. Where races
of a higher civilization come in contact with a lower, the language
of the latter easily lapses into impoverishment, since it takes over
a number of words from the former. But then its impoverishment
allows no conclusion as to the degree of civilization, but can only
b2 looked upon as a historical fact in the life of that language.
A good example is the freedom with which Nubian has been sup-
plemented by Arabic. The Nubians have their own special words
for sun, moon, and stars ; but the indications of time, year, month,
day, hour, they borrow from the Arabs. With them essi serves
for water, sea, river ; but the Nile is called Tosst. For all native
..^ animals, domestic or wild, they have names of their own ; Arabic
^ j for all relating to building and navigation. Spirit, God, slave, the
Vj ideas of relationship, the parts of the body, weapons, the fruits of
the earth, and everything connected with breadmaking, have Nubian
names ; on the other hand servant, friend, enemy, temple, to pray,
to believe, to read, are Arabic. All metals have Arabic names,
except iron. " They are rich in Berber, poor in Arabic."
How much the very mixture of tongues does to enrich a
language, and above all to adapt it to its purpose, is shown among
European languages by English, which includes just about as many
words of Teutonic as of Romanic origin. Many of the despised
. . foreign words are really in-
X
r
r
n
\y
^ N^ Y
X
^ G ^
dispensable. We need only
think of the planting and
engrafting that has had to be
undertaken in the garden of
every African, Polynesian,
_,,.,.., , , and American tongue in order
Owner s marks : the upright column from the Ainu (after Von Siebold) ; , . -ui r i.
the others, rudimentary writing from the Negroes of Lunda (after ^^ make it poSSlble for the
M. Buchner). missionaries to interpret the
simplest facts of Scripture history and the writings which form the foundation
of Christianity. In every mission the rendering of " God " especially has a history
rich in difficulties and errors.
Glancing at the heavy burden laid upon those who are naturally without speech,
we will only call to mind the interesting fact that in Kazembe's kingdom Living-
stone met with a deaf and dumb man, who used just the same signs as un-
educated persons of his kind in Europe. It is obvious that the language of signs
and grimaces is all the more tempting to use in proportion as language proper is
LANGUAGE 37
defective and simple, and the less varied and abstract the ideas to which it can
lend expression. By frequent use this kind of language can be brought to a
perfection of which we, who always have thousands of words at command, can
form no conception. Races deficient in culture can put far more into the simplest
winks and gestures than we are in the habit of doing. Livingstone tells us that
when Africans beckon to any one they hold the palm of the hand downwards, as
though to combine the idea of laying it on the person and drawing him towards
them. If the person wanted is close by, the beckoner reaches out his right hand
in a line with the breast, and makes a movement as if he wanted to catch the
other by closing his fingers and drawing him towards himself; if the other is
farther off, the movement is emphasised by holding the hand as high as possible
and then bringing it downwards and rubbing it on the ground. But gesture
language has not been developed to a real system of signals among the Africans,
who for that purpose use the drum language (drum signalling, it may be said,
extends from the Cameroons through Central Africa to New Guinea, thence to the
Jivaros in South America). Its highest cultivation seems to be reserved for
the inventive, and at the same time taciturn, Indians of North America. Mallery,
in his great work on the sign and gesture language of the Indians, has given a list
of principal signs, by combining which the most various sentences can be formed.
Here belong also fire and smoke signals ; the whistling language of Gomera, in
which shepherds converse over great distances, make appointments, and so forth ;
and the like. Lichtenstein gives a pretty instance of the expression of numerical
conceptions by means of signs. He relates that a Hottentot, who was disputing
with his Dutch master about the length of time that he had yet to serve, contrived
to explain the difference of their respective views to the magistrate. " My Baas,"
he said, " will have it I have got so long to serve " Here he stretched out
his left arm and hand, and laid the little finger of the right hand on the middle
of his forearm ; " but I say that I have only got so long " And therewith
he moved his finger to the wrist. American Indians often carry a complete
measure with various subdivisions tattooed on one arm ; this brings us to the
rudiments of writing.
Among all races of the earth we find simple methods of fixing a conception,
which present themselves either in picture-writing or in sign -writing as allied
inventions. Yet both are familiar to the youth of all races in later times. Our
boys use a form of picture-writing when they draw an unpopular schoolfellow on
the door of his house with a donkey's head. But adults who possess no higher
form of writing are able, by means of pictures placed in a row, to express a good
deal more than isolated notions. As soon as by mutual consent a conventional
character has been stamped on these representations, making them intelligible to
wide circles, they attain the stage of picture-writing. Signs can only serve a
purpose defined by mutual agreement, as, for instance, marks of ownership simply
express the fact that the article upon which they are painted or cut has such and
such a definite man for its owner. Many signs which are hardly recognisable
under the ornamental character which they often assume, and which brings them
nearer to art, may have sprung from ownership marks of this kind, or be directed
to make a notion plainer, as when the road is indicated by a foot going or a hand
pointing in a certain direction. But then they have already reached the boundary
at which their arrangement in succession brings us to a higher stage of develop-
38 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
ment. The " Wabino song of the Ojibbeway Indians," represented on our coloured
plate entitled " Indian picture-writing," gives an illustration of the way in which
not only one idea but a whole series of statements can be expressed by simple
means to which a definite sense is attached ; all the higher kinds of writing
have sprung from picture-writing. > This descent is recognisable in the Mexican
and Egyptian hieroglyphics, but is obliterated in the Chinese ; but traces may
still be noticed everywhere ; even in the cuneiform writing we may find echoes of
the picture-writing from which it sprang. In the Egyptian hieroglyphics an ox
or a star indicate the things themselves, but besides this, even in the very oldest
inscriptions going back to B.C. 3000, they also denote certain definite sounds.
In the Mexican picture-writing signs of things and signs of sounds were similarly
blended. A monosyllabic language like Chinese, which denotes different words by
means of one and the same syllable, makes use of signs of things which indeed are now
hardly recognisable in order to define phonetic signs for syllables. The Japanese,
on the other hand, for the purposes of their language, which, being polysyllabic,
is more adapted to phonetic writing, arranged a really phonetic script out of the
Chinese letters. In a more decided fashion the Phoenicians did the same when they
dropped the superfluous signs used by the Egyptians to denote things, and only
adopted such hieroglyphs as were most necessary for writing down the sounds.
The Phcenician names for the letters made their way into Greece, and passed into
all western " alphabets." Thus, from obviously manifold beginnings of picture-
writing, grew up, in one spot of the earth only, one of the finest implements of
human thought — the art of writing by means of letters of the highest pliancy,
adapted to all languages, and in its development into telegraphy and shorthand
attaining the highest possibilities of compressed expression of thought. Therewith
mankind achieved an extraordinarily important step in the progress of its develop-
ment, for in fixing and securing tradition, writing fixed and secured civilization
itself, in the essence of which we have found the connection of generations based
upon tradition to be the living, we may say the inspiring nucleus.
§ 6. RELIGION
Difficulty of the subject — Have "natural" races religion? — Are their ideas survivals from a higher sphere of
thought, or germs to be developed later ? — Hawaiian Hades-legend — .The origin of all religion lies in the
search for causes — Phenomena which stimulate this search : great natural phenomena — Superstitions con-
nected with animals — Sickness, dreams, death, have an even more powerful effect than natural phenomena
— Ascription of souls to all objects — Fetishes — Idols — Temples — Modes of burial — The idea of a future
life — Morality in religion — Classification and propagation of religions — Missionary activity.
The inquiry into the religious life and thought of natural races is difficult.
They give information about their conception of the Supreme Being only with
reluctance, often incompletely, or with the intention of deceiving. Very often it
may really not be easy to them to give such information, for the reason that they
have no clear ideas on the subject. When Merensky asked some Christian Basutos'
what they had thought about God while they were still heathens, they said : " We
did not think about God at all, we only dreamt." Religious ideas as clear and
simple as monotheism are not found among savages. Not only does the entire
RELIGION
39
thought-life of these people move in pictures of dreamy indefiniteness, in many
cases without sequence or connection ; they lack the secure progress and develop-
ment of thought from one generation to another which brings about the organic
growth of the thought of a former age into that of the present. Such religious
ideas as do exist are often known only to a few elders who guard them jealously.
Even where this does not occur, the dislike to giving away the secrets of religion
often makes it possible to get at most a mutilated fragment.
We must therefore be on our guard against too narrow a notion of the
religious surmises and imaginings of " natural " races. In one respect they are
always comprehensive. All mental stirrings and strivings which are not directed
to the immediate practical
aims of life find in them
their expression. Reli-
gion is at once philosophy,
science, historic tradition,
poetry. Cranz says of the
Greenland angekoks'' They
may be called the Green-
landers' physical - science
teachers, philosophers, doc-
tors, and moralists, as well
as soothsayers I" In reli-
gion there is under all
circumstances much room
for conjecture and inquiry.
But we must not start with
the view that everything
wTiich exists deep down
must equally show itself
on the surface. The most unfair judgments, full of intrinsic contradictions,
arise from this prejudice. How shallow is the view of Klemm that among the
Arctic races every one believes as he likes ! " No common religion exists 1 "
Klemm has quite misunderstood a remark of Cranz. One who knew the
Namaqua Hottentots well, Tindall the missionary, has also made the statement
that " in regard to religion their minds seem to have been almost a tabula rasa'.'
This has no doubt been understood to mean that they had scarcely any inkling
of religious matters. Certainly in the soul of a Namaqua there is no intelligible
writing to be read, clearly proclaiming any religious message ; but survivals of an
intelligible writing, in many places obliterated, are not lacking. And so indeed
Tindall presently qualifies his own statement by saying that the fact of their
language containing appellations for God, spirits, the evil one, seems to indicate
that they were not wholly ignorant of these matters ; even though nothing further
appears in the terms of the language or in ceremonial usages and superstitions to
give evidence of anything more than a crude conception of a spiritual world.
He believes that the superstitious tales which travellers have picked up from them
and narrated as religious reminiscences, were regarded by the natives themselves
as mere fables, related only with a view to entertain, or in order to give some
insight into the habits and peculiarities of wild beasts. This expresses far too
Melanesian sea deity, from San Christoval. (After Codrington. )
40 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
narrow an apprehension of the idea of religion ; if these usages and tales are not
religion, at least they are of the elements from which, as civilization progresses to
development, the crystal of a purified belief is built up. When we find ourselves
in the course of our description in presence of the question : Is religion to be seen
in usages, views, legends ? we shall put the counter-question : Is religion to be
apprehended only as a cut-and-dried conception, or is not the truer and fairer way
of looking at it to hold that the elements of religion are to be recognised in every
department of human thought and feeling which can rise above the affairs of daily
life, and above this corporeal existence, into the realm of unknown causes ?
Rarely, no doubt, among " natural " races shall we meet with religion in that
narrow sense ; but, on the other hand, we shall not analyse a single race on its
spiritual side without laying bare the germs and root-fibres of religious feeling.
Nay, we shall arrive at recognising that the spiritual side of a race nowhere finds
more copious utterance than in religious matters. Beside the material destitu-
tion of the Bushmen, are not their myths_ suggestive of a treasure ? From
scientific conviction we must unhesitatingly endorse the verdict which was
pronounced by the religious feeling of V. von Strauss in opposition to this tendency
to degrade : " Complete absence of religion, true atheism, may be the result of an
undermining, soul-deadening over-culture ; but never the effect of crude barbarism.
This, in its deepest degradation, always retains the craving for religion, with a
corresponding faculty for religion, however faultily and confusedly this may
operate."
Ethnography knows no race devoid of religion, but only differences in the
degree to which religious ideas are developed. Among some, these lie small and
inconspicuous as in the germ, or rather as in the chrysalis ; while among others
they have expanded in a splendid wealth of myths and legends. But we must
not always want to see primitive conditions in their imperfections. Let us
remember how in Abyssinian Christianity, Mongolian Buddhism, Soudanese
Mahommedanism, great religious thoughts have dwindled away beyond recogni-
tion. The propagative force of religious ideas is as great as the certainty that
they will dwindle where they are cast forth into the wilderness of the materialistic
savage life, isolated and cut adrift from any organic connection with a great living
mythology, or a system of teaching imbued with spirituality. Already we find
debased fragments of Christian or Mussulman ideas in Indian and Polynesian,
Malay and African myths ; and if we had no inkling as to the history
of their introduction, they would appear as evidences of an underlying germ
of monotheism. The poetry of " natural " races again in any case arouses a
suspicion that some twig from the tree of European story and fable has there
dropped into the soil, and with the power of reproduction which is peculiar to
these creations of fancy, has straightway thrown up scions in foreign ground.
In a notice of Callaway's Nursery Tales of the Zulus (1866), Max Miiller has
connected with this the deeper thought that like our folk-lore stories and so forth,
at least so far as they deal with ghosts, fairies, and giants, these point to a remote
civilization, or at least to a long-protracted process of growth. " Like the anomalies
of language, they show by their peculiar character that there was an epoch when
what is now devoid of rule or sense formed itself with a definite object and
according to laws." We venture even to predict that in the religion of the most
remote African and Australian peoples, just as in the rest of the culture possessed
RELIGION 41
by them, will be found germs or survivals of Indian or Egyptian tradition. The
Indian elements in the Malay religion belong now to the domain of proved facts,
and perhaps reach as far as Hawaii and beyond, even to America.
The profundity of the thought must not be measured by the imperfection of
the expression. In considering a mythology like the Polynesian, it must not be
overlooked that this multiform weft of legend is often less like clear speech than like
the prattle of a child, and that one has more often to attend to the What ? than
to the How ? Often a similarity of sound, an echo, suffices the sportive fancy of
these people as an attachment for far-reaching threads. The same aspect of a
supra-sensual relation looks far more impressive on the parchment of some
manuscript of a Greek poet than in the oral tradition of a Polynesian or African
priest or sorcerer. But if we try to extract the more intelligible sentences in the
prattle of the savage we get a picture which is in its essence not far inferior to
the more adorned poetical expression. Let us compare a Hawaiian legend of
the under-world with its parallels in Greek mythology. A certain chief,
inconsolable for the loss of his wife, obtained from his priest, in answer to his
prayers, the company of the chieftain's god as his guide into the kingdom of
Milu. They journeyed to the end of the world, where they found a tree which was
split ; on this they slid down to the lower regions. The god hid himself behind
a rock, and after smearing the chief with an ill-smelling oil, sent him forward by
himself. On reaching Milu's palace, he found the court filled with a crowd of
spirits (Akua), who were so engrossed in their game that he was able to join them
unobserved. When they did notice him they took him for a newly-arrived soul,
and jeered at him for a stinking ghost who had stayed too long by his putrefying
body. After all kinds of games had been played, they had to think of another,
and the chief suggested that they should all pluck out their eyes and throw them
together in a heap. No sooner said than done ; but the chief took care to
observe which way Milu's eyes went. He caught them in the air and hid them
in his coco-nut cup. As they were now all blind, he succeeded in escaping to the
kingdom of Wakea, where Milu's hosts might not set foot. After long negotia-
tions with the chief, now under the protection of Wakea, Milu got his eyes back,
on condition of releasing the soul of the chief's wife. It returned to earth and was
reunited to its body.
Religion is everywhere connected with man's craving for causality, which will
ever be looking out for the cause or the causer of everything that comes to pass.
Thus its ^deepest roots come i_nto_CLontact_ wiih science, and are profoundly,
entwined with the sense _of Nature. Agathias tells us that the Alemanni
venerated trees and streams, hills and dales ; and we may boldly assume for all
mankind the universal " animation " which lay at the base of this veneration.
This craving is very suitably met by the tendency to vivify or even incarnate all
the higher phenomena of Nature, by attributing to them a soul which guides in
the first place their own motions and changes, but afterwards also their relation
to their surroundings nearer or more distant. The Dyaks ascribe a soul to
plants no less than to men : if the rice rots, its soul is clean gone ; but it can,
when strewn on a body, follow the human soul to the other world, and there
again be incorporated and serve it for food. A false application of the law of
cause and effect leads to the assumption that there are relations between this soul
and the human soul, which at last weave around this latter a close network of
42
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
causation. The story of the Kosa chief has often been told. He died shortly
after causing a piece to be broken off an anchor which was cast up on shore, and
from that time forward the anchor was treated with reverence. So a thousand
threads are knotted together, and none of them is forgotten ; and in this net of
tradition the simple child of nature flutters like a fly in the spider's web, and ever
entangles himself more with every attempt to find the right clue. The soul is
literally caught. A cord with several open nooses fastened to it is hidden in the
leaves. If the man for whom it is meant catches sight of it, he fancies his soul
is caught in it, and frets himself to death. There you have a method of sending
a person out of the world which in the Banks Islands has been tested by
Fetish in Lunda ; purpose unknown, perhaps to avert lightning. (After Buchner. ) Cf. p. 48,
experience. Hence the terror of phantoms due to his own power of imagination,
which is one of the distinctive traits of the savage, and has more influence than
it should over his doings. When Melanesians are asked, says Codrington, who
they are, they answer " Men," in order to let it be known that they are not ghosts
or spectres. Of night the savage is more afraid than a badly brought-up child.
Felkin, writing from the Upper Nile, says that at night the natives will never
march, for fear of wild beasts and the evil influence of the moon. At the same time,
for full half the year they feel far from comfortable in the daytime, and try at least
in some measure to secure themselves under the constant feeling of being
threatened by invisible powers, by extending the idea of unlucky days, common
to all mankind, to the point of absurdity. Monday, Thursday, and Saturday are
good days for travelling in these parts ; Wednesday is neither specially good nor
bad ; but Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday are unlucky days. In Java, have not even
the thieves their silver dial, like a watch, showing, after the fashion of a calendar,
RELIGION
43
the best time for burglaries or robberies, to assist them in their choice of lucky-
days ? White men, like everything new and unusual, have almost inevitably been
mixed up with these superstitions. Many a sad episode in the history of the explora-
tion of the dark continent is explained by this connection, which is natural enough
in the negro's spectre-teeming brain. Livingstone, in his Missionary Travels,
forcibly depicts the terror which he, as the first white man, inspired in the negroes ;
he, the best friend they ever had among the whites : " The women peer from
behind the walls till I come near, and then hastily dash into the house. When a little
child, unconscious of danger, meets me in the street, he screams." No less are the
Entrance to a fetish hut in Lunda. (After Buchner. ) Cf. p, 45,
things owned or used by the white man instantly raised into the sphere of the
miraculous, the fetishic. Paper with writing on it especially is a fetish for the
West Africans, who regard it as sheer witchcraft. Buchholz was bandaging a
severe wound for a man when a scrap of paper fell unnoticed from his pocket.
On his next visit to his patient he found him flitted, because the house was
bewitched. The bit of paper was restored him with the utmost solemnity. On
the occasion of the funeral of a Bakwiri woman he was urgently entreated in a
special speech by an envoy from the negroes, kindly not to throw bits of paper
about in his walks, as otherwise they would have to avoid those roads and spots.
When Chapman visited Lechulatebe's town on Lake Ngami, the mortality from
fever was very high. The chief was in great alarm and excitement about " the
death that was roaming all around." He scarcely showed himself outside his hut,
made his wives and children undergo frequent ablutions, and kept his doctors
constantly at work by having his threshold incessantly sprinkled with decoctions
of herbs. The relations of those who had died were subjected to tedious processes
of purification before they were allowed to rejoin the community.
44
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Thus an animating breath blows not through Nature only, but all things ;
and there is in all dealings, even in the decoration of men and the ornament of
things, much more spiritual value and purpose than we fancy. Therefore the word
polytheism applies to all religions of the lower grades. A tendency to multiply
conceptions shows itself throughout ; in the course of time the process of god-
making has become pleasant and easy to the
troubled spirit to which all this is due. Where
the mass of the chiefs were looked upon with
awe as demi or entire gods ; where souls did not
only survive, but remained in intimate contact
with this world ; where every family possessed
its own tutelary spirit in the shape of a beast
or something else, gods and idols must have
sprouted and flourished and entangled the whole
mind in a thicket of fantastic fictions. We do
not wish to see therein only the base creations
of terror. In the act of animating is something
beautifying, such as on their higher levels poetry
and philosophy strive after.
Where lie the sources whence ghosts and
spectres rise incessantly in their millions ? The
most striking change in a man himself or his
closest associations is wrought by sickness, sleep,
and death. It is not the fear of Nature which
meets us as the first basis of superstition, but
that of death and the dead. The business of
Shamans, medicine-men, Koraji, and whatever
else these wizards are called, is everywhere in
the first place to seek out the causes of death
and sickness, and then to communicate with the
spirits of the dead ; who are regarded by their
relatives with deep aversion, often with fear and
pain.
Directly from this springs fetishism, setting
up in all manner of complicated ways relations
between the countless tribe of souls and all pos-
sible articles in which these take up their abode.
Here it is clearly seen that no straight road from
objects of external nature to the soul of man is
offered by the fundamental lines of primitive religious systems — for we shall seek
in vain for any direct relations between their teaching and the measure of extent
and activity which the fetish-system has reached, — but rather that the fancy,
timidly searching around in the whimsical way in which the emotions of alarm are
apt to express themselves ; for any support that may be at hand attaches itself to
objects often in the highest degree unworthy of its confidence. But interrupted
experiments, so to say, are tried with regard to supernatural agencies. Not only
is search made after new spirits, as when curiously-shaped stones are laid by a tree
to try if they will improve its bearing ; but old acquaintances are tested, as for
e^^^=^-^^^^
Wooden idol from the Niger (Museum
of the Church Missionary Society).
RELIGION
45
instance, by giving them bad or putrid meat. Why have all the African negroes
such a predilection for horns, hanging them in quantities on the persons of their
magic-men, while the high priests, who are the kings, keep their dreaded medicines
in them ? Whence comes the almost comic veneration for pots, displayed by
Dyaks and Alfurs ? Anything striking finds a place in the wilderness of curi-
osities which hang about the neck and waist of a Kaffir magician ; indeed it was
in the leather pouch hung round the neck of such a person that the first great
find of diamonds at the Cape, by an extraordinary coincidence, was made.
Stone-worship is widely spread, but as a rule is connected with large upright
pieces of rock ; though in Africa any stone may become a fetish, and be decorated
with rags of many colours wound
round its neck. Among the Mus-
gus, long poles serve for idols ; the
Azandeh prefer shapeless blocks
stuck with nails, while in the
Cameroons pillars of basalt are
used. It would be hard to find
an African who has not a fetish
hung on him, and since many
wishes, actions, and so on, have
their special fetishes, many a man
is heavily laden with these salu-
tary objects. There are amulets
too, which taste the water before
you drink, and give warning of
anything noxious therein ; for evil
spirits are partial to this flickering,
foaming, ever-changing fluid. An
Eskimo's weapon bears a little
tutelary god on the band. This
is only one stage from the so-
called idols, figures of dead persons, which are cut in wood or cast in metal, or
moulded in the huts out of clay, and set up about the graves. Both are
animated ; only the soul of the ancestral image is a definite one, which used
to possess a well-known body, and now has passed into this doll, and often for
years to come takes its accustomed place ; as in the case of the Shaman of the
Goldi, who stands in his old place in the yaourt until he is broken up with
memorial services. With the making of such visible images of souls comes
also the founding of special places for venerating them, in the form of the
African fetish huts, the tabooed places of Malays and Polynesians, and so on
up to the temple. As these are frequently contiguous to the places of burial,
the abodes of the souls of the departed, they often look much like our church-
yards, which are laid out round the churches without any consciousness of the
close connection which prevails between care for the souls of the dead and the
worship of God. The only difference is that the primitive temple more often
grew out of the churchyard than the churchyard was appended to it. The
Shaman of northern Asia surrounds himself with a whole series of wooden idols,
with whom he converses during his conjurations, and from whom he gets advice.
A mummy wrapped in clothing, from Ancon.
and Stubel. )
(After Reiss
46
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Figures of animals, especially bears, come in, and his
yaourt is a very home of souls. It must remain un-
decided whether we have a higher stage in the fetish-huts
where there are no images or other embodiments. In
Africa we find them as genuine huts, in Oceania as little
shrines.
Funeral ceremonies are a department of religion
among all races. The thought underlying them all is
that the soul does not leave the body immediately, or at
least maintains a certain alliance with it. The Poly-
nesians state clearly that the soul after death haunts the
neighbourhood of the grave for a while, until it finally
descends to the realms of Milu or Wakea. Among
Malays and Indians of north-east America this action is
equally clear, and among the races of east Asia we find
a glimmering of it. For this reason the corpse is often
left for some time unburied— a whole year among the
Chiriquis. The widely -spread custom of burying gifts
with the dead, and the mummy-like arrangement of the
corpse ; the marking of the grave, which among the
Bongos assumes the character of a monumental edifice ;
the founding and maintaining of regular mausoleums in
the caise of chiefs show how little the inanimate body is
regarded as a mere thing. Among many races provision
is made for the temporary return of the soul to its
Idols from Hermit Island.
(Ethnological Museum, Berlin.)
Supposed idols representing souls, from Ubudjwa. (After Cameron.)
RELIGION 47
decayed tabernacle, and to this end an opening is left in the vault, and from time
to time meat and drink are put by the corpse or poured into the grave. The
soul in its wanderings may travel to any other persons, bewitch them, ruin them,
or raise them to unexpected honour. In Uganda every sorcerer is tenanted by
the soul of a king ; but the ordinary soul, Musimu, can enter into any one. That
the soul does not rest when it has reached the grave is indicated by the boat
which is set up on the mound. In the North the sledge on which the corpse
was drawn to its last home is used in the same way. From this boat is derived
the shape of the stone slab used by North Germans. The forcible recall of the
soul into the corpse by means of witchcraft was regarded as no less possible than
its extraction by the same means from the living body, and transference to that
of some beast ; this last is a speciality much in favour with African magicians.
But with the assumption of universal animation, the fancy need see no bar to
any transmigrations on the part of the soul, though beasts naturally occur first.
With the grounds for reverent treatment of the corpse fear is associated as a
powerful motive. The rapid swathing, the carrying on a pole, the avoidance of
the door, the hasty interment at a distance from the hut, are all operations if not
prompted by fear, at any rate imbued with it. Curiously enough in this respect
the strongest contradictions occur ; for while the Kaffirs often simply drag their
dead into the forest and leave them to the hyaenas, they bury others in stone
graves, or on their own premises. In the Cameroons a man is buried in his hut,
a woman by the roadside. If the hut of the deceased is deserted or destroyed
his household furniture is broken up, his slaves and flocks often put to death, and
his very name devoted to oblivion, so effective is the dread of spectres.
The brief and fragmentary thought of savage races allows of a profound
belief, expressing itself in as many forms as we have seen, in the animation of
the human body, without a perception in all cases of the consequent necessity of
accounting for the place in which the souls abide. Still that belief doubtless
renders their acceptance of the idea of a future state more i-eady ; and if this
shows a remarkable similarity among ancient Europeans, Polynesians, and
American Indians, we may look upon this as a fact of geographical distribution,
remarkable rather in its relation to the geography of mankind than to the
psychology of races. The myth already given of the soul-snatching Hawaiian
chief shows clearly how far the resemblances go. In the fundamental features of
a descent, a trick practised on the lord of the nether world, the jealousy of the
remaining souls, we find agreement among many races. Conceptions which, as
immediately reflected images of the reality, involve a certain element of necessity,
stand in a different relation to each other from ideas which are attached to them
only in the second or some more distant degree. These latter must always be
tested with especial thoroughness in respect of their origin in higher and more
remote spheres of thought.
What is called an idol is originally nothing but a memorial of a deceased
person — an ancestral statue. It is more rare to find the soul embodied in a
symbol, as when, at a memorial service for the dead among the Goldi, a wooden bird
bearing the soul away is swung over the head of the Shaman. Usually the man
is given as he was, often highly conventionalised. The connection between these
images and what is commonly called idolatry, naturally depending on the affection
bestowed upon the dead, is never more than a part of religion. This explains
48
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
the otherwise inexplicable variety which in this matter prevails among close-
allied tribes, as for instance in New Guinea, where the Nufurese have a long list
of idols ikaroivar), while there are none whatever among the Arfaks. Now we
can understand also the intimate connection between skull and idol worship, for
the skull is a» memorial of the dead. The farther the idea of memory retreats,
the more impersonal is the image. In Tahiti, where the personal family idols, or
tii, are distinguished from the national idols, tu, it is chiefly the latter who are
rendered invisible by wrappings. The theft of them often gives rise to wars
between tribes.
Besides death we find life, with generation and birth as its more enigmatic
and significant processes, woven into relations with the supernatural. The moment
of generation is by predilection represented in carvings and images, and very
commonly that of birth also. In the case
of this the presentation of the feet signifies
a special relation to the myths. There lies
an affirmation in the new life which is
opposed to the power of destruction. The
phallus as a symbol of protection against
evil powers is in use among the most
various races ; and therefore we do not
think it necessary, with Schmeltz, to bring
the appearance of phallic emblems among
the Maoris into relation with the obscure
question of the composition of the race, on
the ground of the special prominence of
the same among the Melanesians. Any-
how it is the case that among most dif-
ferent races, birth, the attainment of
maturity (this very particularly), and mar-
riage, are surrounded by ceremonies intended to render in a perceptible form the
importance of these events. To the notion of a future life there has now accrued,
in a higher stage of development, a more advanced and higher element in the
shape of a doctrine of future rewards and punishments. Of this, however, many
races show no trace. The " natural " races, no doubt, imagine divisions ' in the
future life, but these are social, not moral. Thus the Polynesians distinguish the
realms of Milu and Wakea. The former is the rowdy place where lower-class
souls dwell, and amuse themselves with games and shouting ; in the latter, on
the contrary, quiet and dignity prevail, suited to the chiefs of whose souls it is
the abode. Walhalla is only for brave warriors who have fallen in fight ; and so,
too, the Indian warrior has his select heaven. It is essential to point out that
ethics do not necessarily form a primitive ingredient of religion, but are an
admixture occurring first in the higher stages.
Two classes of natural phenomena exercise the most profound effect upon the
innate sense of insecurity ; and man must find out how he stands with regard to
them. In presence of the mighty activity of natural forces he compares himself
with the power and majesty of nature and acquires the consciousness of his own
inferiority. On all sides innumerable obstacles offer barriers and hinder his will.
His spirit trembles before the infinite and unfathomable, and hardly troubles itself
Grave of a Zulu chief. (After G. Fritsch. '
RELIGION 49
further about the particulars of which that exahed grandeur consists. Legends are
sure to be woven about a mountain in the plain ; the dark forest harbours ghosts ;
storms, earthquake, volcanic eruptions, impress by the unexpected and stunning
manner of their outbreak. The fantastic idols with which forest and field in the
Negroes' part of Africa swarm are in, fact frequently memorials of lightning-strokes
and the like. The deepest impression is left by the phenomena of the starry
heavens, by reason of the majestic calm and regularity of their motions. The
existence of these strange appearances so remote from earthly things, their
brightness, their great number, naturally exercised an influence on the mind even
of primitive men. All, even Bushmen and Australians, have names for the
constellations. The warming power of the sun must have been felt with gratitude,
more perhaps in cooler regions than in the tropics. Moon and stars, lighting the
darkness, are doubly welcome to savage races with their fear of ghosts. The
trouble they took to exorcise the obscuring spirit in eclipses of the moon, the
high place allotted to the moon in the religious ideas and legends of all races,
are evidence of this. It is too much to say that the sun as giver of light has
been revered by all nations as a divine being and the universal benefactor.
But sun-worship is widely spread, especially among agriculturists, and where ideas
are more developed. Even on the magic drum of the Lapland Shaman a
radiant sun is represented. Legends connected with the various positions of the
sun in respect of the earth, and with the changes of the seasons, are widespread.
In common with mother-earth the fertilising sun creates all living things, and the
stars also. The souls of departed heroes make their way to the setting sun.
With the sun is connected the worship of the fire which must not be put out and
is kindled under the bond of an oath. The Japanese solemnly brings into his
house at the new year fire which has been lighted in the temple by rubbing wood
on an appointed day. Even the Russian in the district of Tamboff carries all
the ashes he can and some stones from his old hearth into a new house, to bring
luck ; a survival of the transference of the fire itself.
Weather phenomena impress by their immediate effects, and the degree to
which they enter into economic prosperity. The part which they play in the
beliefs or superstitions of mankind is thus easily comprehensible, and shows itself
in the frequent occurrence of rain- or sunshine-makers, the purveyors of fertility.
Somewhat beyond lies the domain of those phenomena which never or seldom
come into immediate relation with man, and therefore are noticed by him only
when they force themselves on his attention. Even the savage, the most prejudiced
creature in human shape, the man with the least field of vision, receives an
impression from the rainbow " the bridge to the sky," from the roar of the sea,
from the rustle of the woods, the bubbling of the spring. These phenomena are,
drawn into the range of superstitious conceptions, which in their turn are called
forth by nearer causes. Are they images of souls, which the Ainu place on
promontories where an awkward current prevails in order to pray for a good
passage or a lucky haul ? Savages know how meteoric stones fall, and have
retained experiences of them in their traditions ; the stone-hatchets found in the
soil they call thunderbolts. The boat with the corpse is launched on the waves ;
the dark forest is overlaid with taboo ; in every brook a spirit is imagined.
Poetry here entwines its roots with religion ; it appears a highly superfluous
•question to ask if these races have a sense of Nature.
E
5°
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
But social observances are also mixed up in this. We know the part played
by beasts as symbols of the social groups, as totems that is. The Shaman goes
about with beasts as with his fellows, puts on a pair of artificial stag-horns, drinks
the blood of dogs out of the hollow figure of an animal, has a hollow wooden bird
swung over him, sacrifices to the river god out of fish-shaped shells. The Giljaks
employ bears, hedgehogs, and tortoises for magic purposes, especially in sickness.
Every year they have a solemn feast of fat bear out of their own wooden dishes.
Legends about beasts and plants form a chief, not to say typical, part of the
literature of primitive
races. Beasts ever find
a place at the base of
the genealogies of tribes
and chiefs. Wherever
the world of Indian
thought has spread,
the belief in the trans-
migration of souls ex-
tends, especially in
their transition from
apes ; even Japan once
had its sacred apes.
Besides this, beasts
impressed themselves
irresistibly by means
of the good and harm
they did. Man-eating
savages felt themselves
akin to the man-eating
beasts. The custom
of sparing these animals
— indeed among the Malays and the Joloffs of Senegambia, crocodiles were kept in
sacred ponds — may perhaps have another interpretation, as when Lobengula, king
of the Matabele, made it a capital offence to kill a crocodile because mischievous
magic could be practised with a dead crocodile. Even so, however, the beast
religion may be assuming an indirect form.
The inquiry about the One, the Lord of heaven, the All Creator— God in short,
is not one of the first results that emerges from the mass of religious ideas. It is
only incidentally that a glimpse at Him opens, and that only through chinks in the
thicket of idols. The conception of His existence which we gain is all the less
clear from the fact that the streams in which He is mirrored flow from different
sources. Undoubtedly ancestor-worship leads to a gradual exalting of prominent
figures above the common herd, and even to heaven. We can point to such
apotheoses in Africa, as well as in Oceania ; among the Incas they even began
while the subjects of them were living. By the transference to heaven, the con-
dition of far-reaching dominating influence is fulfilled. The millions of departed
souls must have chiefs to lead them, and for this purpose those who were chiefs
below are also the best adapted in the next world. Further, if it pertains to the
essence of a god to accomplish the most various results from one point, without
Fish-headed idols from Easter Island. (Christy Collection. ;
RELIGION 51
being tied to thing and place of action, he must be raised on high. The weak-
ness of remembrance accounts for his appearing to forget his roots in earthly affairs
and to soar above. Thus the mass of souls become spirits ; in their images they
become fetishes ; a few become tribal gods, and from these perhaps, by dissemination,
may proceed gods recognised to a distance. Jehovah is received as the God of the
world. Creation requires at least a first man, and beyond him a God capable of
creating him. Usually the sky or the sun is called to this dignity ; there live the sacred
primeval ancestors who now coalesce with the creating God. Lastly, consideration
of Nature demands great ruling spirits for the great things, and innumerable small
ones for the small things. One Spirit in heaven, who is at the same time Creator,
will of course be the First. Thus from different points there is a striving after
one high Being, one God ; everywhere we hear the name of a highest spoken, but
only faintly and indistinctly. Frequently he is literally to be regarded as the
eldest, the spiritual Lord of the tribe, the Sovereign over the souls of the departed,
the Creator. It is dangerous for our missionaries to assign his name to their and
our God, or the adherent of ancestor worship will be led of himself to put a mytho-
logic form upon a first man, the ancestral lord of the whole race. Unkulunkulu
is the original ancestor ; he is himself the creator of men, a mysterious figure, but
mysterious simply because the Kaffir has abstained from figuring him precisely
either in fact or fancy. Thus Unkulunkulu resembles the supreme heaven-god of
most negro religions ; a being unaffected by earthly doings, and therefore dis-
regarded ; and corresponds to Molimo among the Bechuanas and Basutos, and
Nyambi or Nyame elsewhere. The origin of all may be the same ; but here it is
important to notice, whether memory has grown so faint that the image of the first
parent has been spiritualised, or this image is still so recent that our conception of
God is degraded by the use of His name. The missionaries to the Hereros
took Mukuru and Kalunga (for which they had at first put " fortune ") as the
expression for " God " ; Nyambi was not adopted till later. In pre-Christian days
the Hereros actually lived in a state of pure ancestor-worship. On the Gold Coast,
and in parts of East Africa, we shall see that more pronounced developments in
the direction of monotheism appear ; and with^ these Christianity need have less
scruple in linking itself. In some cases, the name of evil spirits (where they appear
as destroyers and renewers of creation), has been adopted to render " God." In
the New Hebrides, Suque, the name of a secret society, has been used for this
purpose ; and in the Torres Islands, Augud, which means " totem.'' The
familiar Manitu of the Indians of North America is not " the Great Spirit," but
"spirit" generally, even a bad one. The Polynesian Atua, which the missionaries
took for " God," may have originated in some similar idea ; but it is so universal
in the sense of ghost, soul, or breath, that too close a contact is prevented with
notions which the heathen would seize upon. The fact, referable to ancestor-
worship, that within one race different spirits are assigned to different groups, which
conduct their worship in secret societies, and often use this secrecy for purposes
of outrage, naturally hinders the growth of the monotheistic idea, so long as no
one of them is in the majority. Regulations of rank in veneration is no sure guide,
for the name of the god venerated as supreme changes from one country to another.
In the small area of the Society Islands, we find the following gods holding the
supreme place : — Rua in Tahiti, Eimeo in Raiatea, Tane in Huaheine, Tao in
Bolabola, Tu in Maurua, Tangaroa or Taaroa in Tabueamanu, Oro in Tahaa. In
52 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
New Zealand, Rangi (Heaven), takes the highest place at the head of all other
gods. In Hawaii, Tane comes to the front, as Kane ; with him Wakea and Maui,
who are only of importance in mythology, and the war-god. But as we shall see,
all these supreme beings can lose nearly all their worship in favour of simply local
ancestral deities. Nothing has contributed to this so much as the formation of
sectarian groups, who struggled to keep their own god or spirit strictly to them-
selves. As they grew powerful, they imposed their own divine service on weaker
brethren. On the other hand, we are told in regard to the Shillooks, that the Niekam
owned in every village a temple or a house, often the whole village, which was
inhabited by a privileged and much -respected caste — a kind of lords spiritual.
These claimed a share of all the booty taken ; no man ventured to touch their
cows, even to milk them. The chief's wealth was kept concealed in the Niekam's
territory. In Abbeokuta, bundles of straw indicated the property of the thunder-
god Shango ; this is inviolable, and whosoever lays his hand upon it, incurs the
vengeance of Shango's priests. Indeed Shango is an instructive phenomenon.
Some hold him for a king who in his life was very cruel. Others say he was a
late-born scion of deity, only recently admitted to immortality ; sometimes he is
the thunder-god's ancestor, sometimes his companion, and then thunderer himself
All points to the soul of a chief lately raised to Olympus.
The shiftings and exchangings of names, especially among non-writing races,
owing to the recurrence of the same deities and divine functions, form a constant
source of confusion even in the fundamental threads of mythology. It is therefore
only possible to disentangle them by keeping fast hold of the underlying reality,
setting aside all questions of hierarchy. To see in some isolated fact, like the
survival of the first parent of the human race, a special and higher characteristic
feature of the American form of the deluge-myth, is only to fail to recognise the
multiform varying nature of the myth generally. An effort after selection and
elevation lies deep down in the human mind. Nothing but rapid extension over
wide areas, and the keeping of all decomposing influences at a distance, is needed
to raise one idea of the deity above local limitations and waverings, as we see in
the diffusion of Christianity and, Islam. But the acquisition of power, that is,
alliance with the secular arm, is also necessary.
The notion of man's position towards a personal Supreme Being, the highest
disposer of things, to whom man stands in personal relations, has nowhere grown
up in a pure form, but always only in fragments, inadequately, and in a shape
full of misconceptions. Nor has religion, in the course of its development, remained
alone, but has passed into more and more intimate alliance with other efforts of
the human mind, above all with the stirrings and cravings of his conscience. Thus
it received its most important adjunct, the moral element, and thereby acquired a
higher influence upon general civilization. While in the cruder stages of religious
development, man appears almost entirely as the demanding party who approaches
spirits, fetishes, and so on, with his wishes or even orders, the execution of which
is paid for in sacrifices ; the spiritual side now comes to power, and, equipped with
£eward and penalty, rules him, not by guidance only, but also by constraint. This
|harper differentiation of the moral element in religion, which may be followed
■rough many stages, is accompanied by the clearance from it of a mass of elements
Khich without any deeper inward affinity are apt to be bound up with it ; as, for
Sample, in the lower stages, not only the service of the superhuman spirit,' but
RELIGION 53
also the care of the spirit in man, as in all beginnings of science, art, and poetry,
matters connected with the sorcerer, the priest, and the like. Thus we have a point
which we might compare to that where a number of vague winding tracks meet
to form a few clear and straight roads. The alliance of religion with the civil law,
which, though involving many humiliations, has in the end an elevating effect, frees
it at the same time in an increasing degree from the alliance with all the activities
of the mind which are to develop independently with art and science. The separa-
tion takes the line of a distribution among a number of persons of the priestly
functions, as magicians, healers, rain-makers, image-carvers, court- minstrels, and so
forth ; but only arrives at completion on the threshold of the age of art and science.
History first shows us poetry, the arts, and the sciences in independent activity
when we come to ancient Greece ; in Egypt they were all attached to the priestly
caste.
The alliance of the temporal and spiritual powers is to be found in all stages
of mankind at the present day. The power of a chief is incomplete without that
of witchcraft, exercised by himself or in the closest union with the priests ; only
fighting chiefs may form exceptions. Even here the bard has to go with the
prince. A failure in rain-making may totally destroy all respect for a prince ;
and Africa affords many instances of dethronement and murder owing to ill-success
in witchcraft. On the other side, one can hardly conceive a more powerful support
for the tradition of a sovereign house than ancestor-worship, such as made a saint
of each of the Cuzco Incas. Oceania shows, by a multitude of examples, that
princes or warrior-heroes stepped into the first rank of the gods. The succession
of power was thereby materially fortified. In this connection we recall a remark
of M^rim^e's to the effect that the preference shown by the Romans for the Etruscan
above other Italian races, may have been partly due to the knowledge of the oldest
religious traditions and the interpretation of omens which distinguished the Etruscan
aristocracy. What is good for society and the state is indicated as pleasing to
God ; spirits who have to do with the welfare of families, societies, states, cannot
but be beneficent. With the immutability of the divine requirements, the variable
demands of morality, the profound and in part noble requirements of society, are
content to be allied where they enjoin respect for age, the safeguarding of marriage,
of children, and also of property — this last in the form of the highly selfish laws
of "taboo." This gives the blending of temporal and spiritual interests. The
cunning priest whom enlightenment sees at work, under one cover with the prince,
to keep the people stupid is, especially at this stage, no mere fiction. Secular and
spiritual law are fused. If the chief is a sacred person, any revolt against the
order at the head of which he stands is sin ; and now religion serves for the more
easy taming of the agitator and subverter.
The distinction between good and evil, which the profound sentiment of the
Mosaic story places at the very beginning of the process of the Incarnation, must,
in any case, have grown up early and spontaneously in another way. In Nature
we find the harmful and the beneficial, and in the universal animation their counter-
parts pass from her into the spirit-world. The feeling of thankfulness toward the
Good is constantly being called forth anew. Man needs it, and must be able to
pray to it. Then if all good is to be ascribed to the soul of an ancestor, we have
a mythic embodiment of the Good. But at this point the Good long remains as
the benefactor of the individual, not of the whole community. There is an
54
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
approach to this notion when, as in New Britain, the creation of all good things,
whether lands, institutions, or only traps for fish, is ascribed to one single being — ■
To Kabinana (" the wise ") ; other harmful things to another — To Kovuvuru (per-
haps " the clumsy "). But when the t^yo halves of the race, who bear the names
of these creators, show no recognition of rank -distinctions, but those called
Kovuvuru are found
\i^^^^\ .™=^ throughout on the
same level as the Ka-
binana, it looks as if
only a very weak con-
trast were felt. The
deep gap between an
unmoral religion and
one full of morality
is attested by the
human frailty of the
dwellers in heaven.
Why are the mytho-
logical figures of the
gods often so aban-
doned from a moral
point of view — worse
even than the men
who adore them ? A
perverse conception
of the force and power
whereby they have to
raise themselves above
the masses produces a
false ideal of divine
greatness. We have,
too, the fable-making
element, which exer-
cises itself agreeably
in mythology, and has
spread over the whole
world that other false
Magicians of the Loango Coast. (From a photograph by Dr. Falkenstein. )
ideal of the cunning divinity, outwitting others in adventures of love, war, even
business.
The priest is the embodiment of the world of spirits with whom he has to hold
intercourse, whom he bans and exorcises. He is fitted for his duties by the
expulsion of the ordinary soul and the entrance of a new one ; he best adapts
himself to them when he differs mentally from the ordinary mass with a tendency
to mental derangement, epilepsy, hallucinations, and vivid dreams. The tradi-
tions of the fetish priesthood are propagated by instruction, which is imparted to
suitable youths. As a transformation from the normal man to a controller of spirits
with magic powers, the training assumes the character of the miraculous, even a form
of transmigration. Those whom the fetish loves are taken away by him into the
RELIGION
55
bush and buried in the fetish house, often for a long period. When the person
thus carried off awakes again to Hfe he begins to eat and drink as before, but his
understanding is gone and the fetish man must instruct him and teach him to
perform every movement hke a httle child. At first this can only be done by
blows, but gradually his senses return, so that it is possible to speak to him, and
after his education is completed the priest takes him back to his parents. Often
they would not recognise him did he not recall past events to their memory.
The nucleus of his art lies in his intercourse with the spirits of the departed,
but as sorcerer he is the receptacle of all knowledge, all memories, and all fore-
bodings. Many Europeans have been in a position to appreciate the operation
of his medicaments of herbs and roots. The position of the sorcerer is that of
the doctor on a higher stage ; some doctors understand certain disorders — for
example, worms, — better than others, and to
these patients are sent by the sorcerers. Bleek
asserts that among the Kaffirs of Natal their
doctors, as a rule, dissect beasts, but that in
time of war some have secretly dissected men ;
this is a solitary statement. In any case they,
no more than their patients, content them-
selves with natural remedies derived from the
animal and vegetable kingdom, but they ob-
tain, as they think, the deepest and most
secure effects by the intervention of super-
natural powers, whereby also troubles other
than sickness, such as those of love, hatred,
envy, may find a cure. The production of
hallucinations was familiar to the priests.
When they brought these about they were
merely creating fresh supports to faith. Long Dice and amulets of a Bamangwato magician.
■' => '^'^ . , (Ethnographical Museum at Munich.)
before science they were m possession ot the
secrets of suggestion, hypnotism, and the like. The people themselves knew a
good deal, but the sorcerer always kept the best a secret. Consider the power
that resides in the mere fact of tradition. Often, indeed, the only kind of knowledge
of history possessed by these races is the tradition of important events which is
handed down secretly among the priests, and astounds those who seek for counsel
by the appearance of a supernatural knowledge. Naturally, this knowledge can
also be put at the service of the sovereign and of politics. The sanctity of tradition
had also the object of making it secure, and in this sense we can say that it replaces
writing. Writing and printing have damaged the position of the priest. The art of
tradition had also been specially cultivated ; to it belongs the knowledge of tradi-
tional signs and pictures in higher stages, the art of writing and reading, if possible,
in a special script, as with the Egyptian priests. Special priests' languages recur
among the most different races of the earth ; the fundamental ideas of Shamanism
are accompanied everywhere by details similar or agreeing even in the smallest
points, of a kind which, in some respects, is not everywhere intelligible. Arrows
to be shot off at the completion of a conjuration in order to lay the evil spirit form
part of the sorcerer's equipment on the Lower Amoor as well as m Africa,
America, and Oceania.
S6
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
The employment of masks in religious ceremonies is widely spread in all
countries where the form of religion is polytheistic. Beast masks and human
masks, monsters and complicated head-dresses, all find a use in religious perform-
ances. They recur in China, Thibet, India, Ceylon, among the old Mexicans and
Peruvians, as also among Eskinios, Melanesians, and African Negroes. The
Aleutians put masks along with the bodies in the graves, with such comically dis-
figured features that one is inclined to' take them for dancing masks, which at one
time served a profane end, and now are connected with serious conceptions of life
and return after death.
Prognostications alone involve a complete science. Their number is so great
that they teem through everything and hamper life on all sides. To give only a
few examples from the Kaffirs. Eating milk products in a thunderstorm attracts
the lightning. If you eat milk in a strange kraal you will commit a transgression
there. You must not do field work the day after a hailstorm or you will bring
Masks from New Ireland — one-eighth of real size. (Berlin Museum of Ethnology. )
down more hail. He who kills a hawk must be put to death. If a bird of this
kind settles on a kraal it is a sign of bad luck for the owner. If a cock crows
before midnight it betokens death for man or cattle. The same evil significance
is attached to the springing of a dog or a calf on a hut, and to the appearance of
a rabbit in a kraal. The whisker of a leopard brings sickness and death upon any
one who eats it unaware in his food, but if any one eats it with some of the flesh
of that animal he becomes brave, and has luck in the chase. Dogs who eat the
beak and claws of birds become strong and courageous. He who steps upon a
thorn must eat it in order to protect himself from it next time. The horrible and
widespread belief that no fatal accident which is in any way unusual can be
natural, gives rise to a mass of magic practices, which pre-suppose a great know-
ledge of personalities and their influence. Ordeals which in Africa are intensified
by means of strong poisons are surrounded with a strict ritual, as are sorceries
connected with rain, the renewal of fire, and the most important periodical incidents
in the field, the cattle-stall, and the chase.
The spiritual elements of a civilization are constantly exposed to the most
rapid decay. As it is just these which are the motive forces in its forward
development, this fact alone explains the great tendency to stagnation with
inevitable retrogression. The history of religions is specially instructive here.
If we ask in which elements Christianity has undergone the greatest modifications
RELIGION 57
among the Abyssinians, or Buddhism among the Mongols, the answer must be
in the most spiritual. All founders of religions have borne higher ideals than
their successors, and the history of all religions begins with a declension from the
height reached by pure enthusiasm, to which later reformers at long intervals
endeavour again to raise themselves and their fellow-professors. In monotheism
we taste the bitterness of the sharp experiences of life known to advanced age.
Who can wonder that young and naive races do not esteem it in all it3 pure
worth ? Abstractions are not fit for the masses. The same holds good in matters
of dogma. It is not purity of dogma for which the fanaticism of the multitude
cares, but for having the religion to which it is accustomed left undisturbed.
How easily, in the extension of races, the deeply -differing principles at the
base of religion tend to disappear behind forms is shown by nothing better than
by the simultaneous Buddhist and Brahmin worship that takes place in many
temples in Burmah and Ceylon. The magnificent ruins of Angkor Bat, in
Cambodia, are a unique surviving testimony to this state of degradation of religions
into a blend.
Outwardly decay shows itself in the split between form and essence, and it is
here that the first rifts are formed. Then the work of destruction is carried farther
by external decomposing influences, impaired strength, impoverishment, loss of
independence, dwindling numbers. Artistic facility does not keep pace with
spiritual creative power ; as we may see by comparing the spiritual imaginings
of Polynesian mythology with their representations in stone or wood. The spirit
evaporates without leaving any creations behind fully corresponding to its ' own
power and grandeur ; but the forms remain. That is why among the so-called
" natural " races the forms, even the most rudimentary, often hold a higher
place than the essence ; and this alone marks a stage in degradation. In almost
all religions we meet with blurred traces of higher conceptions, and not only in
spiritual but in purely material affairs, like those articles used in Buddhist worship,
which have passed into the paraphernalia of Shamanism, brought thither by the
active traffic between the more opulent Shamans and the Chinese, or the Christian
crosses which in Tuckey's time were carried as fetishes on the lower Congo.
Some isolated Christian notions had anticipated the missionaries. When Dobriz-
hofifer was trying to convert the Guaranis on the Empalado, an old cacique said
to him : " Father priest, you need not have come ; we need no priests. St.
Thomas long ago gave his blessing to our land." The idea of a Devil, the most
conspicuous evil spirit, was spread long before Christianity by uneducated Europeans,
and has led to the assumption of " devil-worshippers," and a dualism of good and
evil spirits. On the other hand, with regard to the legends of creation and the
flood, often no less suspicious, and their curious accordance with Genesis, they
are too universal and too deeply entwined with the whole mythology to allow us
to assign them so recent and so casual an origin ; part of them, at least, belong
to the world-myth, whose origins date from pre-Christian times.
Have we in religion isolated developments or a network with closer meshes
here, looser there ? The answer involves more than any classification can offer ;
indeed, we shall not be in a position to classify aright until we have made it clear
to ourselves how much is the common property of mankind, how much the separate
possession of a race. What we have to say on this point is connected with and
supplements what has been said above about the common possession of mankind.
58 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
" Animism " and ancestor-worship are common to all human nature : Bastian
calls them elementary thoughts. As we may learn from funeral customs, their mani-
festations often agree even in details. From them we could reconstruct a universal
doctrine of souls as held by savages. Fragments from China and North America,
Germany and Australia, fit with wonderful precision, and form a united body of
doctrine consistent in its fundamental features. We have seen how the " universal
animation " of Nature connects itself with this. No doubt the objects which it
animates are different in Greenland and in Fiji ; but from like sources it draws,
with like bounty, superstitious usages absolutely alike. For this reason the men
who have power over these things agree so extraordinarily in disposition and
character. The Shaman of northern Asia and the African rain-maker, the American
medicine-man and the Australian sorcerer are alike in their nature, their aims, and
to some extent in their expedients.
All mythology has outgrown the small local influences which once must have
been powerful in it. We do not mean that in the mythological reflection in the
popular mind of regular natural phenomena, it is not often some slight abnormality
which is felt as such far beyond the measure of its magnitude, as when the sun is
distorted on the horizon ; we do not overlook the fact that the extent to which
sun-worship flourished in Peru rested upon the certainty in that land of little rain
or cloud, that the brightest of the heavenly bodies would at all times be seen
uncovered ; nor do we forget the influence of historical facts such as meet us in
the legend of the primitive abode of Iroquois and Algonquins, in which they saw
not only their home, but also the places whence kind white men with beards came
to them. Here one element may preponderate over another ; the main fact
remains that they were bound together by like fundamental thoughts from which
what we call the world-myth was constructed.
The chief trait in the world-myth is the opposition between heaven and earth.
Heaven appears sometimes as itself, sometimes as the sun, i.e. the sun is the eye
of heaven. They are interchangeable ; thus among the South Americans a belief
in heaven replaces the very marked belief in the sun, as the future home of the
soul, which exists among the North Americans. In the work of creation the sun
is the assistant of heaven. The earth is always opposed to both ; its creatures
are subordinate ; it is always regarded as the female upon whom heaven begot
all existing things, man in particular. With sun, lightning (or the god of thunder),
fire, volcano, earthquake, is associated also the idea of an assistant creator who
approaches the earth in the revolution of the sun, in the lightning-flash, in volcanic
eruptions, just in proportion as heaven remains remote from him. Hephaestus
and Prometheus, Demiurge and chastised fire-bringer, life -giver and destroyer,
he stands at the centre of many a religious system, and heaven, the All-father,
comes far behind him. The Maui-myths are common to all mankind, not specially
Polynesian. They might just as well be called after Loki, who is also a crippled
god of the under-world, or after Daramoolun, the thunder-god of the South
Australian races, whose name Ridley translates by " leg on one side,'' or " lame,"
or again after the Hottentot Tsuigoab, " wounded knee." No myths, and so
not these, can be made, in proportion to their wider or narrower, denser or looser,
distribution, the bases for conclusions which have reference only to limited race-
relationships ; it is quite enough if the characteristic features turn up elsewhere.
Maui, like Hephsstus, is crippled in a limb, and dwells in the earth ; if the South
RELIGION 59
Africans believe in a lame god dwelling in the ground, it is the same. He even meets
us in a multiplied form in one-legged gnomes who dance round the cave-dwelling
fire -god of the Araucanians. The cloud -serpent with the lightning is to the
Nahuas the creator of man, just as the thunder-god is to the Tarascos, or Ndengei
to the Fijians ; and he again is a serpent who grew with the foundations of the
earth, and whose movements produce earthquakes. And this serpent is, again, the
sacred dragon of China and Japan with its endless variations.^
In connection with the opinion of many races that the god of heaven and the
light who dwells in the east is their creator and benefactor, they place their original
abode in the east, as the Mexicans sung of Aztlan, the land of brightness. Still
more often the place of departed souls is placed in the western sky, where the
Islands of the Blessed rise in the golden glow of sunset. In the description of the
ways which the soul has to travel, its dangers and escapes, lies a mass of simi-
larities, which is far greater than the missionary, with all his energy, can have
carried from one people to another. Readers may remember the Hawaiian tale
of the soul brought back from the under-world.^
There is scarcely a single legend of creation in which a tree does not occur —
the tree of the Hesperides, the ash Yggdrasil, the tree of Paradise. It stands
between heaven and earth, the gods descend upon it, the souls find the road to
heaven by it, or it becomes a rough beam for them to totter across ; in short all
creation has come out of it. The region in which men are conceived as sprung
from trees embraces Hereros, Kaffirs, West Africans (cf cut on the next page) ;
the kindred idea of an origin from plants occurs among Polynesians and South
Americans. As a geographical fable it has preserved its connection with that of
the home of souls : one of the Canary Islands, held to be of iron, and therefore
waterless, is said to be watered by means of a tree " always covered by a dense
cloud ; thence the leaves of the tree received water which constantly dripped, so that
men and beasts got drink enough." This was believed down to the 17th century,
as may be read in Schreyer's Neue Ostindianische Reisebeschreibung (1680).
The men of the present day are in many accounts only a second later-created
race, separate from an earlier one which was destroyed by some great catastrophe,
the falling of the heaven or the flooding of the earth. Cameron heard at the lake
of Dilolo that in the depth of the lake men were living, moving, and acting, as if
in daylight, their entire village having been submerged for their cruelty in sending
away an old beggar man. A single one received him kindly, and so saved himself
and his house. It may be thought that is a version of the story of Noah, through
Arabic or Abyssinian tradition. But we find the story elsewhere also with local
alterations. The water especially is regarded as inhabited ; the negroes on the
Nile can tell of splendid herds which the river-spirits drive at night to pasture.
This whole mythology, put together fragmentarily and only half-understood,
has as it stands before us the interest of an ancient building constructed of strange
stones, in which the very gods of modern men, the returning restless spirits of the
departed, roam about in a thousand forms, to which nevertheless it is only in a
few places that they assume a relation of intimate kinship. The fundamental ideas
of animism and all that is twined round it, spread over the earth at another date
and from other sources than the cosmogonic legends, the myths of gods, and the
^ [Dragons also live in mountain-countries, especially on mountain-tops. Compare Salimbene's account of
the ascent of the Canigou by Peter III. of Aragon.] - Supra, p. 41.
6o
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
portraitures of the next world ; and the former were certainly much earlier than
the latter. Both show the most striking similarities in the remotest regions ; but
in every region they are two independent worlds of ideas, which come into intimate
contact at a few points only, while even then there intervenes a peculiarity which
we may call " free invention," or at least " free variation." We do not share the
view that every custom, every usage, of these races with no traditions must be
deeply rooted in some historical association. Much comes into existence in sport ;
the Nyambe worship of the Balubas is not the only case in which the suggestion
of a whim has had consequences. Beside the great similarities, finally, we find
Cemetery and sacred tree in Mbinda. (After Stanley. )
the smaller ones. These help to explain the others, of which they are often
survivals, roots, or offshoots.
As we find in all parts of the earth, where Europeans have built houses and
ploughed the soil, the same plants growing in rubbish or springing from seed ; so
isolated superstitious usages, of little importance in themselves, sprout up as
survivals and traces of thoughts which are universally diffused. The belief not
only in the evil eye, but in hands and horseshoes as counter-charms to it, is found
in India, Arabia, North Africa, and Europe. In Morocco the women, when in
mourning or after illnesses, hang little balls made of their hair on certain trees, a
custom which, as the hair-offering, we meet with in the most various forms in all
parts of the earth. It is only one portion of a complex mass of usages the aim of
which is respect towards,^ concealment or offering up of, whatever is taken from
the body. Here also belongs circumcision, a custom most irregular in its
RELIGION 6 1
distribution. Zulus practise it, Bechuanas do not ; it is found in New Caledonia,
but not in the Loyalty Isles. In its special ritual form again it runs through the
most various and distant countries.
In conclusion, we may refer to one of those usages which seem to have
something playful about them, and of which for that very reason the wide
dissemination strikes us. In Ancon and Flores, frames made of reeds, and
having many-coloured threads wound over them in the fashion of a flag, or a star,
are put into the grave with the corpse (Figs. 7, 8 in the coloured plate " American
Antiquities). Among the Pimas a religious significance is attached to them, and
we find them in Vancouver and Chittagong without any nearer definition of their
purpose. In Egypt they form ornaments for horses ; in Bolivia they are stuck in
the rafters.
In order to take a general view of the extension of the various religions, it is
customary to divide them into a few large groups, to the statistics of which, if we
only demand estimated figures, an approximation can be obtained. If the
grouping is to be based on the deepest-seated differences, in order not to break up
mankind into casual fragments, but to distinguish them according to the true
height and depth of their religious development, we must not always take into
consideration the traditional, superficial forces, Christianity, Paganism, Polytheism,
Monotheism. If we survey the religious development of mankind in connection
with their total development, we recognise that its great landmarks lie elsewhere.
Monotheism arises even in the midst of polytheism as a natural effort to provide
one Supreme Being ; while the monotheistic creeds are invaded by the impulse to
distribute the one who is distant into several, or many more accessible.
At the base of the religious development of existing men we find :
I. Religions wherein the divine is not exalted far above the human, and
without any strong moral element. These rest in all cases on belief in souls or
ghosts ; allied with this are sooth -saying, medicine, rain -magic, and other
superstitions.
In one group we find the association of natural phenomena to be only slight,
and the tendency to fetishism accordingly strong, as with many Negro races and
the Northern Asiatics ; in the other a higher development of cosmogonic and
mythological conceptions to entire systems, as with Polynesians and Americans.
II. Religions which exalt the divine far above the human sphere, and
progressively detach themselves from any mixture with other efforts of the mind
in the direction of science, poetry, and the like, cultivating proportionately the
moral element. The belief in souls recurs in a purified form in the assumption of
a future life with rewards and punishments.
(a.) Polytheism, which allows a position of sovereignty to several locally
varying gods without always recognising any moral superiority in
them, as the Brahmins and Buddhists, pre-Christian Europeans, the
ancient Americans.
(iJ.) Monotheism in different grades 01 development, according to the number
and importance of the beings akin to gods, saints, and so on, who
intervene between the one God and man. The single God appearing
in the highest moral perfection — Mussulmans, Jews, Christians.
Christianity, at the beginning of its intimate and manifold contact with non-
European races, soon laid aside the prejudice that their souls were not destined to
62 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
salvation, and from the beginning of the sixteenth century the missionary formed
the inevitable accompaniment of trade and conquest — even of the slave trade. Not
only as an institution with religious aims, but generally as an effect produced by
strangers among a race of whose nature they often know very little, but into
which they try most forcibly to penetrate, the entrance of the missionary is
important from an ethnographic point of view.
The monotheistic religions could not well attach themselves to such a
wavering uncertain conception as that of Nyambe or Manitu. In most cases
they could not even use the name of the supreme being whom they found in
possession to denote their one God ; misunderstandings would have been too great.
But the possibility of forming a connection, even of fruitfully cultivating the
already prepared soil, is doubtless presented in other religious ideas of the
" natural " races. Theoretically for the understanding of the much-despised
condition of religion among the " natural " races, no less than practically for
estimating the prospects of Christianity, it is worth while to emphasise these. The
idea of the continued life of departed spirits, on which that of a future world also
rests, is fundamentally akin to the Christian doctrines of the soul and immortality.
To cherish the memory of ancestral souls is in no way in contradiction with
Christianity, but it must pause before the deification of ancestors with which
idolatry begins. In the cosmogonic myths of natural races Christianity finds
traits of its own doctrine of creation reproduced, often in striking agreement ;
lastly, the Christian doctrine of God as Father and Son may be attached to the
ideas of a Demiurge.
The gap opens as soon as we set foot upon the moral law, that essential con-
stituent of Christian doctrine. In spite of Abraham's sacrifice the missionaries
must set their faces firmly against human sacrifices and the low value attached to
human life. What is more difficult, they must extend their influence upon the
morals of their scholars much farther into the domain of the purely secular than
did the heathen priests. Their Christianity must have a social and economic side,
and therewith be revolutionary in its effects. Polygamy and slavery form two
great stumbling-blocks. Missionaries seek to reach their aim by reforming the
economic existence of their disciples, but may easily go too far in that direction.
Certain philanthropists who sent a missionary with Captain Fitzroy to that
forgotten spot of earth, Tierra del Fuego, wrote in his instructions : " In your
intercourse with the Fuegians you will bear in mind that it is the temporal advan-
tages which you may be capable of communicating to them that they will be
most easily and immediately sensible of. Among these may be reckoned the
acquisition of better dwellings, and better and more plentiful food and clothing.
Consequently you will consider it a primary duty to instruct them in cultivating
the potato, cabbage, and other vegetables, and to rear pigs, poultry, etc., and to
construct a commodious habitation. You will probably find in this as in more
important things that example is the most influential instructor. You must there-
fore take care to have a comfortable habitation yourself, furnished with all necessary
articles, and kept clean and orderly. You will also fence in a piece of ground for
a garden and get it well stocked with the most useful vegetables, and also surround
yourself as quickly as possible with a plentiful supply of pigs, goats, and fowls."
This is a beautiful plan ; why were its results so meagre ? Such an attempt to
bring men over from a poor but easy state of existence to one which, though better.
RELIGION
63
demands more of them, can be nothing but an economic revolution which is not
only capable of bringing blessings, but also certain to cause mischief, and the
latter sooner than the former. The existence of the Fuegians may very well
appear dreadful to European eyes and pleasant enough to their own. The
missionary must in all cases start with a notion that the higher civilization is
certain to have a decomposing effect upon the conditions of heathen life, and that
he should soften the transition by the practical schooling of his disciples ; but he
should not play the part of artisan or tradesman. This contradicts the mystic
element which resides together with a mass of superstitions in the priesthood of
natural races. This must not be undervalued, but we must recollect the vows of
self-denial so frequent in Africa, which are taken with special ceremonies and
Boat-coffin from Timorlaut. (From a model in the Ethnographical Museum, Dresden.
Strictly kept ; or the bodily and spiritual acts of self-injury performed by the
Shaman when he is sending out his soul in convulsions. It is in the healthy
alliance of self-denial with practical work that the success of the missionary
monastic orders lies. The aim which the German missionaries to the Hereros set
before them has for its basis an economic and social development such as
Christianity might entertain ; deeds are more effective than spoken doctrine as
they are shown in the demeanour of the missionary, and above all in the calm
security with which he regards and treats the things of the world. Finally the
priest can only make a breach in the chaos of superstition if he is at the same
time capable of acting as physician.
The universally-recurring combination of chiefhood and priesthood leaves no
doubt that the success of missions depends upon a right estimate of political
conditions. Not till the missionary can obtain the backing of a powerful chief
will the discharge of his task as a rule be possible. The Austrian mission in
Gondokoro, started with such sanguine hopes, collapsed without leaving any traces
worth mentioning of its devoted activity (Speke, with some exaggeration, says
without having accomplished a single conversion), chiefly because it took a
perfectly independent attitude. In fact, instead of any government which could
64 *THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
keep in check the Bari population, in their state of utter political decay, and
protect their property against themselves, there was nothing but a society opposed
in its very essence and aims to all missionary activity, that of the slave-traders.
Results have shaped themselves quite otherwise where the missionaries have been
able to develop their operations under cover of even such toleration from a chief
as Moffat got from Mosilikatse ; or when they have enjoyed the protection of
powerful chieftains, as Livingstone among the Basutos and Makololos under
Sechele and Sebituane, or the missionaries of different denominations under Mtesa
and Mwanga in Uganda — though in this instance they have unfortunately not
been able to keep clear of parties.
From all this it should be clear that missions can only go to work with a
prospect of success after thorough study of the religious notions and secular
institutions of the " natural " races. Ethnology owes most valuable contributions
to many missionaries who have realised this. Very frequently it has been the
inevitable study of the languages which has led to a deeper understanding of the
life of a race. But he who would teach savages what is deepest and most
essential in Christianity must also understand it himself The least successful
missionaries have always been uneducated men, incapable of a right conception
of their own faith, such as have been sent out in numbers by England and
America : men without love, who have often been rather traders or political agents
than Christian ministers.
In conclusion we may again point out that the implanting of a new faith
always implies a simultaneous transformation in civilization, and must be the
work of more than one generation. A mission allows of no hurry, it must shirk
no trouble to heap up grain upon grain, it must not allow itself to be seduced into
snatching at opportunities which seem to afford a chance of more rapid progress,
and thereby, even were it only temporarily, diverted from its true aim.
Next to Christianity, Islam is the chief proselytising monotheistic religion.
In many respects it seems better to meet the comprehension of the more backward
races. In Africa and Asia it makes progress. Its extension may be merely
superficial, as in the negro countries of Africa, where we find among the Furs,
under a Mussulman varnish, the belief in a god called Mola and sky-worship in
full vigour, while in West Africa the transition from the Mussulman mollah to the
fetish priest is imperceptible ; but still it strikes its roots deeper than Christianity.
It offers no logical difficulties, and its practical commands may be lived up to
with a certain laxity. The permission of polygamy and slavery gives it an
incomparable advantage compared with Christianity. The prohibition of the
former indeed excludes from Christianity, at all events until a profound moral
renovation takes place, all those persons of property whose higher social position
is above all things indicated by the ability to keep several wives, and for whom
this is the chief satisfaction derived from their wealth. Upon this institution, to
which even missionaries do not always venture to offer stubborn opposition, and
which quite recently in the southern Ural has caused hundreds of Tartars to
renounce Christianity under the eyes of Russian officials, a great part of the
influence of Islam depends. The general upshot is that Islam is usually better
suited to the society and polity of the least advanced races, and is allied with a
civilization all the closer to theirs for the reason that the place of its origin is
nearer their own both in locality and in climate.
Printed Tjv the Baiiogxaplusches Inslitut. Leipzig.
WEAPONS, UTENSILS, AND ORNAMENTS OF AMERICAN INDIANS.
WEAPONS, UTENSILS, AND ORNAMENTS OF AMERICAN INDIANS.
1. Wooden club : Haida, Queen Char-
lotte's Island.
2. War-dance flute, Sioux.
3. Pipe: Blackfoot Indian.
4. Arrow : Apache (New Mexico).
5. Racquet: Choctaw.
6. Blunt Arrow : Apache.
7. Stone Tomahawk : North-west
America.
8. Bow : Apache.
9. Wooden Club.
ID- Post erected in front of house :
11. Dancing rattle : (?) Apache.
12. Tobacco pipe.
13. Shield : Pueblo (Cochiti).
14. Quiver and bow-case : (?) Apache.
15. Scalping knife in sheath : Blackfoot.
16. Medicine bag of otter skin.
17. Hunting pouch : Cherokee. ^
18. Bowl : Pueblo (Acomo, Arizona).
19. Spear ornamented with feathers
(Uaup^) : Brazil.
20. Bow : Conibo.
21. Arrow: Cashibo.
22. Arrow : Conibo.
23. Arrow : Shakaya.
24. Fishing-arrow : Shakaya (Orinoco).
25. Fishing-fork : Pano.
26. Harpoon : Pano.
27. Arrow : Cashibo.
28. Feather - sceptre used in dancing :
Mundrucu.
29. Feather-crown : Makusi.
30. Breast belt : Conibo.
31. Necklace : Lengua.
32. Ornament for the back : Rio Pastaza.
33. Carved spoon : Pemba.
34. Bowl : Cocama.
Haida^
One-tenth natural size. All from Ethnographical Museum, Berlin. (When no place of origin is given, it is lacking also in the
Museum Catologue. They are good old pieces from the former Royal Cabinet of Art).
SCIENCE AND ART 65
Not a third of mankind has yet been won to Christendom. Out of
570,000,000 estimated of monotheists 440 confess Christianity. Of the remain-
ing 900,000,000 of the earth's inhabitants, the Buddhists with 600 occupy the
largest area, and the most inaccessible to Christian teaching. It is practically
from the residuum of the lowest heathendom that the missions, which now control
3000 ordained men, have gained their converts. The most conspicuous successes
have been in Oceania, where a whole list of island groups have been won for
Christendom, and are now sending out from among themselves missionaries to
the neighbouring islands. In Africa, Madagascar is almost wholly under Christiain
influence. The Hottentots and Hereros, the people of Siberia and Sierra Leone,
and numerous tribes in Angola, on the Gold Coast, on the lower Niger, have
become Christians. In Asia perhaps i -400th part of the population of India has
been baptized. In China the tale is yet less in proportion to the mass of the
population — 65,000 in all. On the other hand the Indian Archipelago shows a
larger list of Christian districts. In America nearly all the Eskimo of Greenland
and Labrador, many Indians in North America, and the greater part both of
them and the Negroes in the West Indies, have been gained. In South and
Central America the Spaniards, both in Church and State, have been working
at the conversion of the Indians ever since the beginning of the sixteenth century,
with rnuch success in accessible localities.
It is obvious that no one can have a thorough knowledge of missions who
thinks that these few figures express their successes. We must always think of
them in alliance with other civilizing forces, to which they act as a stimulus or a
check. As a spiritual power they effect much which in its essence is spiritual.
As Warneck says, " the Gospel puts new religious views and moral conceptions
into gradual circulation, and these surround even the heathen part of the race
with a new spiritual atmosphere. Wherever a mission has taken a firm footing,
paganism is no longer what it was ; a leavening process begins which ends with
its decomposition and the victory of the Gospel." And besides that, the emitted
light of faith radiates back warmth.
§ 7. SCIENCE AND ART
The condition of scientific development— The slow expanding of the sense of Truth— Religion and Science-
Age of fear and of mythology — Friendship with Nature — Science under semi-civilization — Systems of
science among "natural" races — Religion as the common ancestor of art and science — Poetry of
"natural" races — Lyric and musical art — Images of souls and gods — Priests and Artists — Origin of
ornament— Ornaments of men and heasts— Plastic art— Arts and crafts— Sense of colour— Modifications
of style — Materials — Popular sports.
The fundamental labour is that of agriculture. All other forms of economic
activity pursued their course, hand in hand with this, ever more rapidly towards
perfection, till they attained in all points what would be achieved by industrious
and skilled hands — patience, devotion, and lastly, a fine taste, so high a mark
that later generations, working with improved tools and clearer insight, have in
many cases not been able to surpass it. They remained, however, stationary at
manual and individual labour, and, under the restraint of caste, stiffened in tradi-
F
66 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
tional methods. Inventions, machines, production on a large scale, were not
reached till much later, when a creative impulse brought into all these activities
the mighty element of advance which we now call science. If manual labour
provides the basis of civilization, the training of the mind in the maintenance and
renewal of mental possessions gives the force of life and increase. In the opening
of this second source lies the cause of the great advance from what we vaguely
call semi-civilization, to what is called by us Europeans, and is, the civilization of
the nineteenth century. In the year 1847 the following question was propounded
at some meetings of the Paris Ethnological Society. Wherein really lies the
more profound distinction between white men and negroes ? Gustav von Eichthal
answered it at that time : " In the possession by the white man of science, which,
owing to writing, the elements of calculation, and so on, penetrates ever deeper
and gives permanence to itself ; while the negro is characterised, and his stationary
condition explained, by the total lack of it.'' Of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy,
and fixed measurements of time and space they are completely destitute, and
therewith of what on that occasion was named initiative civilisatrice. Meanwhile
we must ascend high in order to find what is in the highest sense science. We
claim to live in the age of science, and if perhaps yet more scientific ages are in
store in the future, yet we more than any of our predecessors enjoy a science
that has of itself achieved great things. A few centuries ago science was still in
a dependent position as handmaid of the Church ; we can trace her entire deliver-
ance, not without great conflicts, from that bondage. But that was only the con-
clusion of a long conflict fought out within the human race. The " natural " races
show us science in its lowest stage. They are not wholly without it ; but their
science is symbolic, poetic, still hidden within the bud of religion. They are two
flowers which cannot expand rightly until they are no longer in so close contact,
but each allows the other space to unfold freely.
In the lower stage religion includes all science ; and the poetry which forms
myths is her most powerful tool. There is no question of truth ; only of getting
an image. The sense of truth is uncommonly little developed among " natural "
races. The kindly Livingstone wrote in his last diary in Unyamwesi : " In this
country you can believe nothing that is not in black and white, and not much
even of that ; the most circumstantial report is often pure imagination. One
half of what you hear may safely be called false, the other doubtful or not
authenticated." The sense of truth must have been developed slowly. The
most highly developed races seek it most eagerly ; and we could even undertake
to grade the present ^holders of civilization according to their love for truth.
With every higher stage of humanity the sense for truth increases, and in every
higher race the number of truthful men.
There is a period at which the universal animation of nature forms a principle
universally valid. Fear or attraction, truthfulness or usefulness, divide all nature
between them_. That is the highest form of the subjective conception. The
next is mythological explanation, which clothes correct interpretation in an
intentionally distorting figurative language. Above the dreary terror which for-
bids the Nyassa negroes to mention earthquakes — how long may the myth-
breeding effect of such a phenomenon, from which science at last issues, lie
quietly under the terror which enjoins a superstitious silence ! — soars the loving
dealing of poetry with Nature. One can speak of the age of belief in ghosts^
SCIENCE AND ART . 67
and that of mythology as successive. In the former the bases of natural
science are laid in the affinity and acquaintance with Nature, which is a great
peculiarity of " natural " races. The mingling of men and other creatures in art
is no mere external feature. The feeling of an absolute spiritual distinction
between man and beast, so widespread in the civilized world, is almost entirely
lacking among savage races. Men to whom the cry of beast and bird appears
like human speech, and their actions seem as if guided by human thought, are
quite logical in ascribing a soul to beast no less than to man. This feeling of
kifiship shows especially in histories of creation, and as a deduction from these
in the beast-legend. An enumeration of the animals to which beliefs and super-
stitions have attached themselves, however copious, would give a defective picture.
In some parts of Africa the chameleon would be prominent, in others the jackal,
in north-west America the otter, in the eastern parts the beaver. Nahualism
{nahual=z. beast in Quiche), the belief in a familiar spirit in animal shape who
is friendly to man, suffers and dies with him, is one way of bringing oneself into
alliance v/ith the animal world ; totemism, which makes the tribe descend from
an animal, is another. As a rule the myth-forming powers of the mind are
concentrated on certain selected points ; while many others, which to all appear-
ance recommend themselves equally well to the myth-forming spirit, are neglected.
The predominance of traditions over new creations is nowhere shown so clearly
as in this limitation, which indeed has a touch of the whimsical.
The fettering of the intellectual powers by giving the priest a free hand, and the
special direction which is therein given to them through the preponderance of
mystical tendencies in the service of superstition, explain much of the backward
condition of many races, and produce a hampering, one may say even petrifying,
effect not only upon the so-called natural races, but also among those who enjoy
semi-civilization. In order to understand this effect we must form a clear view
of the position held by priests. Shamans, medicine men, or whatever they
may be called. In ancient Mexico they received a special training and attained
knowledge and power in the following subjects : hymns and prayers, national
traditions, religious doctrine, medicine, exorcism, music and dancing, mixing of
colours, painting, drawing the ideographic signs, and phonetic hieroglyphs.
This science and ability might be shared with others in its practical employment,
but as a whole it remained a privilege of their caste. The superstitious dread of
their magic power, of their alliance with the supernatural, their innate or acquired
capacity for states of ecstasy, increased by fasting and vows of chastity, raised
them in the eyes of the people at large to unattainable heights. The artificially
unintelligible priest-language contributed yet more to mark them off, but since the
aim of all these preparations and labours was the service of God, or rather of spirits
in the widest sense, the elements of progress in culture and science remained
unaltered in the germ. This religious torpidity among races whose intellectual
life is not yet supported by a more developed division of labour between classes
and callings, and for whom religion is the entire intellectual life, means a fettering
of the intellect. Science which, when left to itself, is naturally capable of progress,
in this alliance is crippled. The Lushais call their witch doctors the " great ones
who know " ; it would be better to designate them those who can, for from their
knowledge proceeds only skill, not science.
In certain directions the intellect of man can progress in straight lines.
68 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
which for us are practically unlimited. In other matters it must necessarily
revolve about certain points without going very far from them. To the former
belong scientific, to the latter religious concerns. The creation of science
therefore forms one of the greatest epochs in the life of humanity, and among
civilized nations the deepest cleavages result from the lack or possession of it.
The orientals as a whole do not understand how to value the sciences for their
own sake. Bare interest in truth characterises them but imperfectly. They
esteem knowledge, but on grounds which are alien to science. When we find in
Chinese tradition one and the same prince inventing or regulating the calendar,
music, and the system of weights and measures, while his wife is regarded as the
inventress of silk-worm breeding and silk working, one of his ministers gives the
order to invent writing, and another carries out the order at once with great
success ; when we find in the same age astronomical observations held in such
importance by the State that two statesmen are punished for neglecting to
calculate an eclipse of the sun properly ; we see in this close connection of
science with State power a proof of the purely practical estimate of science, or,
one would rather say, of knowledge and skill. For this very reason the most
modern scientific works of the Chinese look to us like a survival from the Middle
Ages ; we see the greatest intellects of that race proceeding upon an old road
from which a sounder new road branched off centuries ago. It takes centuries
for a people to disentangle itself from such errors. The Chinese have had
thousands of years, but they stifled all originality in their hierarchic examination
system. Good observation and false conclusion are by no means irreconcilable.
The Chinese who, as indeed their art testifies, have good eyes for what is
characteristic in Nature, are above all no bad describers. Their books of medicine,
in which 2000 to 3000 remedies are described, are rich in definitions full of
knowledge and apt if often prolix, and still richer in excellent pictorial illustrations.
Their classifications too may often claim to formulate carefully correct principles
of thought, but it is not pure truth which stands as the aim of all these efforts, it
is rather the case that a philosophy full of preconceived opinions leads them astray.
The fact that this Physique Mensongere, as Rdmusat calls it, excludes all encroach-
ments of the supernatural, and fancies that it interprets all phenomena in the
simplest possible way, lends a double vitality to the errors. Explaining as it does
everything by extension and compression, Chinese physics finds it easy to account
for every phenomenon, — it is triumphantly enthroned upon empty words.
All civilized races are also writing races ; without writing is no secure tradition.
The firm historical ground, upon which a step in advance may be tried, is lacking.
There is no chronicle, no monument of renown or mighty events intended to
immortalise the history of the past, which may spur to emulation and brave deeds.
What lies outside of the sacred tradition passes into oblivion. Human memory
being limited, it is impossible but that when the poems intended to glorify a recently
deceased Inca are learnt, those which were fashioned in praise of his predecessor
should be forgotten. In the schools of the Indian Brahmins we learn the import-
ance which was attached to getting by rote, and the trouble which it cost : in them
the Vedas have, in spite of writing and printing, been orally propagated up to the
present day. Every scholar has, in the traditional method, had to learn the nine
hundred thousand syllables. Yet writing could never be replaced by these means.
It is impossible to give a general view of all the germs of science among
SCIENCE AND ART
69
natural races. Much' is no longer to be known, more has disappeared and fallen
to ruin, the amount possessed is very unequal. Hitherto too low an estimate has
prevailed. The reckoning of time and astronomy, both of which come into close
relation to men's needs, are indeed the most widely extended, just as they also
stand far up in the pedigree of our science. We may point to the star legends of
the Bushmen, or the observations of the sailors of Oceania, of which we shall have
to speak later. A primitive astrology runs through the religion of the natural
races. Their attempts to drive away eclipses and comets with all sorts of noises
point to a feeling of discomfort from the
disturbance of order in the firmament.
Falling stars denote the death of some
great man, close conjunctions portend
war.
All " natural " races distinguish the
seasons, not only according to the terres-
trial processes of flowering, ripening, and
the like, but also by the position of the
constellations. But the year is an ab-
straction foreign to many, and even if the
months are distinguished, their cycle does
not tally with the year. The step to
science is made when sections of the year,
field labour and such like, are associated
with the apparition of particular con-
stellations, for this assumes observations.
Naturally these are carried out most
extensively and most acutely among the
sea-faring races. We find the Banks
Islanders using a special name, inasoi, for the planets on account of their rounder
appearance.
Civilized races see in poetic literature the highest achievement ot their great
intellects, and it is precisely in this direction that the natural races have risen highest.
Hamann has called lyric poetry the mother-tongue of humanity. Among the
natural races we scarcely find any but lyric poems, and these express love, sorrow,
admiration, and religious sentiments. Wherever the poetry of the natural races
has been put into words it is also sung, and thus poetry is closely allied with
music. As in the case of our own poets, we find here also words and phrases
which have only been preserved in poetry, and unusual lengthenings and shorten-
ings for the sake of metre. In the dancing songs of the Banks Islanders obsolete
words borrowed from neighbouring islands form a regular poetic language to
themselves. There is no lack of bold imagery, and a whole list of artifices such
as repetition, climax, abbreviation, and artistic obscurity come into play. The
alliance with religion is always preserved. In Santa Maria the following song is
sung in honour of a person away at sea : —
" Leale ale !
I am an eagle, I have soared to the furthest dim horizon.
I am an eagle, I have flown and landed on Mota.
With whirring noise have I sailed round the mountain.
Ornament on coco-nut shell, from Isabel in the
Solomon Islands. (After Codrington. )
70
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
I have gone down island after island in the West to the base of Heaven.
I have sailed, I have seen the lands, I have sailed in circles.
An ill wind has drifted me away, has drawn me away from you two.
How shall I make my way round to you two .'
The sounding sea stretches empty to keep me away from you.
You are ciying, mother, for me, how shall I see thy face ?
You are crying, father, for me, " — and so on.
The last words of the poem are : —
" Ask and hear ! who wrote i the song of Marcs .'
It was the poet who sits by the road to Lakona."
In the form of this lyric, as given by Codrington, we see the alliance with
music. Choric and religious songs were accompanied by music,
and there are sacred drums and trumpets which may only be
sounded by the initiated. The Tucanos of Brazil use long
flutes to invoke the spirit Yurupari. Women may not look
upon him and conceal themselves at the sound of these instru-
ments, which at other times are kept under water.
But there is more than this in poetry. It embraces legends
which are not merely fiction but contain in them the whole intel-
lectual possession of the race, history, customs, law, and religion,
and thereby are an important aid to the preservation of know-
ledge from one generation to another. Many legends are
mythological fragments differing outwardly from myth by their
fragmentary character and lack of point. Many myths are
nothing but picturesque descriptions of natural events and per-
sonifications of natural forces. These bridge over the interval
to science, for in them mythology becomes, like science, the way
and the method towards the knowledge of the causes of pheno-
mena. The original object falls into the background, the images
become independent figures whose quarrels and tricks have an
interest of their own. Therewith we have the fable, especially
the widespread beast fable. Here the immediate operations of
Nature are indulged with a wider play. Just as the sacred
mountains and forests, the sacred sea and its cliffs, protest
against any denial of the sentiment of Nature among the races
Piece of bamboo with that have HO literature, so do their myths and hymns testify to
New"He'bHdeT ^^ '^'^ deep impression made by Nature. The connection of many
(After Codrington. ) a little poem with the song of birds is obvious. Light and dark-
ness, day and night, arouse feelings of pleasure and discomfort ;
white, red, and green, embody benevolent natural forces and daemons ; black
those that are dreaded. Sunrise and sunset, storm, rainbow, the glow of
evening, are most adapted to find a lyric echo where sun and fire are objects
of adoration. What light and darkness are for the eye, sound and silence
are for the ear. The rumble of thunder, the muffled roar of beasts of prey,
contrasted with the clear ripple of the spring, the plash of the waves, and the
song of birds. In a series of pictures, copious though limited by the constraint of
customary expression, the poetry and pictorial art of the natural races contrives
^ Literally measured.
SCIENCE AND ART 7i
to express this. On one side of the mysterious Papuan bull-roarer, the object of
religious devotion, is depicted the resting moth, on the other the whirring moth :
what a simple and impressive picture language !
Pictorial art has also, even where it seems to have passed entirely into a trade,
its connection with religion. The execution of carvings was among the tasks of
holy men, who imported mythological ideas into all the detail. If we look at the
instruments used by a priest on the Amoor or the Oregon we see the connection
between art and religion as plainly as if we entered a village chapel or a Buddhist
temple. Polynesia presents an astounding abundance of carved work which
unhappily with its enigmatic fajicy is to us a seven times sealed book. But we
know that at one time the axes of Mangaia in the Hervey Islands might only be
carved with sharks' teeth, that the openings were called " eel- borings," the projections
cliffs, and that the whole ornamentation was one mass of symbols. The clay
Plaited hat of the Nootka Indians showing eye-ornament. (Stockholm Ethnographical Museum. )
^
bowls of the Pueblo Indians have step-shaped edges, to denote the steps by which
the spirit may get into the vessel. The perpetual repetitions of the same little
figures are just like the 555 images of Buddha in the temple of Burubudor in
Java, the expression of inarticulateness in religion and rigidity in art. The art of
" natural " races much prefers its elements to be of small bulk, but from these it puts
together the largest works. In the squeezed or twisted figures of men or animals
piled one on another in the door-posts of the New Zealanders or New Caledonians,
or the family pillars of the Indians of North-West America, no single detail has a
chance of being fairly represented. No freedom is shown except in their
decorative combination. For this reason out of all the many magnificent works
executed in America, sculpture never succeeded in attaining to freedom.
Tradition was just as depressing here as in the much cruder work of the West
African carvers of fetishes, who inhabit a regular industrial village in the
neighbourhood of Beh the sacred village of Togo. Even under the patterns of the
tapa of Oceania, as shown on our coloured plate, symbols are concealed. Thus,
as Bastian puts it, all decorative art appears to be a system of symbols, preliminary
to writing, and is intended to convey a definite meaning. Art, in its efforts after
expression, develops but slowly, and does not emerge into full freedom until the
moment when for its own sake it has forgotten that purpose. From the symbols,
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
JLL
simple masses and lines are composed, which are coloured, shaped, and arranged
so as to correspond with the sense of beauty. But even then the ornament is
only an idealised copy from Nature, most often from a human face or figure.
From almost every Persian carpet there looks at us at least the one widely-
opened eye, which averts the evil eye. The decorative treatment of the face turns
up in such abundance and in so many
forms that it practically recurs in all
ornament above the most elementary.
The occurrence of " ocellate " patterns
testifies to its presence where it would
be least suspected. In the objects dis-
covered at Ancon the most magnificent
ornament is grouped about large faces
or figures with very prominent faces as
centres. On the monolithic gate of
Tiahuanuco are human figures, arbitrarily
conventionalised, and composed of similar
but smaller figures. Attentive comparison
seems at last to justify us in rediscovering
the human form in almost every orna-
ment and every grotesque of ancient
America. But it is striking to see how
much the subjects of primitive art differ.
Australians rarely make any representa-
tions of the human figure ; and they are
very rare in East and South Africa.
Livingstone makes his reflections on the
fact that idols do not become frequent
until north of the Makololo ; while on
the Upper Nile, in West Africa on the
Congo, in Guinea, they occur in great
number. These images were also used
for secular purposes. May not the Kioko
clubs, carved with human heads, have
been originally idols, carried in the hand
instead of being stuck in the ground ?
What we regard as the work of a sportive
whim, those gnarled birch-roots often of
very curious forms, which the Chinese convert into human figures with one or
two cuts and dots, carry us back to the widespread tendency to see in such
freaks of Nature more than chance, something indeed which may be of mysterious
service in magic or medicine.
In art we find once more the bias of religion towards universal animation.
An element at the base of all primitive art is the close alliance of men and
animals in the ornament. This corresponds to the religious view which dreads or
reveres a human soul in every beast. Accordingly in the richest store of
conventional sculpture which we possess, that of the ancient Americans, human
faces and figures, most frequently eyes, occur in the greatest abundance. Next
Carved clubs from Lunda. (Buchner collection in
the Munich Ethnographical Museum.)
SCIENCE AND ART
73
to them come animal figures, feathers, ribbons ; parts of plants very seldom.
W. Reiss draws special attention to a Peruvian robe of state exhibited some years
ago in Madrid, for the very reason that its ornament, contrary to the usual rule, is
taken from plant forms. Feathers, tortoises, lizards, crocodiles, frogs, snakes are
represented with remarkable fidelity. The sun-bird with outspread wings is »a
favourite symbol and theme for ornament from Egypt to
Japan and Peru ; the portal of Ocosingo shows a typical
development of it. Grotesques of men and beasts, dis-
torted and involved out of all knowledge, such as even
the Maya writing displays, are often drawn with great
skill and boldness of caricature. The often-quoted ele-
phants' trunks on monuments at Uxmal, and on golden
figures of men, may be explained either by the tapir's
snout, or a comic elongation of the human feature.
Death's heads are among the most widespread subjects ;
hewn in stone they form long friezes, and adorn the
approach to temples at Copan and elsewhere. A corre-
sponding case is when the temple gapes upon the
beholder with a door shaped like a serpent's jaws, or,
as in a house at Palenque, the whole front forms a
horrible monster, whose mouth is the wide doorway, and
the bars of the sculptured lintel his teeth.
If amid this abundance of images there comes to light
so little of any importance that, in countries where the
Tobacco-pipe carved out of slate, from Queen Charlotte Islands,
British Columbia. (Berlin Museum of Ethnology. )
New Zealand tobacco-
pipe. (Christy Col-
lection. )
climate made it much easier to go without clothes than in Greece, the representa-
tion of the naked human body was scarcely attempted, this can only be explained
by the religious fetters in which art was bound. Almost everything is clothed, the
faces tattooed or covered with a ceremonial mask. In these external points, so
unimportant for us, the Mexican or Peruvian artist put his whole strength. He
represented beautifully the feather robes, the ribbon ornament ; his death's head
or his frog is true to nature, but almost every human figure, on the contrary,
childishly crude and disproportioned. The exceptions to this are rare. When
do we find even a living nose or a speaking mouth? The wide distinction
between the highest point reached by barbaric art and the Egyptian art from
which the Greek and all faithful imitation of Nature started, lies in the
74
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
fact that the former made no effort to represent the human form as such, but
smothered it in wrappings and Symbols. When we consider the stiffly designed
figures of the Egyptians, we get the impression that they were on the road to
become great sculptors ; indeed, in some works they already came near to it.
The Mexicans, Peruvians, Indians, were upon quite another road, which led them
far from this ideal. While the
highest aim of sculpture is to be
sought in the representation of the
human body, the essence of their
carved work consists in neglect of
the body and disproportionate em-
phasis on accessories. Only in the
technique of arabesques could they
attain to anything of importance,
but that led them into a blind alley,
craftsmanship instead of art.
In what are nowadays called
the industrial arts, the restraint was
far less ; here we do find faultless
performances. A Peruvian vase
of red earthenware ; a beautifully
polished, perfectly symmetrical, bow
from Guiana ; a steel axe inlaid
with copper or brass from Kassai-
land ; a spoon carved by Kaffirs in
the shape of a giraffe ; a club or
feather helmet from Oceania, are
creations perfect in themselves.
These are things upon which the
highest art of the west could not
improve. In plaiting, the industry
of the natural races produces better
work, both technically and artistic-
ally, than the civilized races could
show. With the support of its
close ally, embroidery, the applique^
method prevails in the ornamenta-
tion of work in leather and cotton
stuffs throughout North and West Africa, and to some extent also in North
America. The scale of colour is frequently not great, but the sense for colour
is well cultivated. West Africans, especially Houssas, often show more taste
in choosing the colours of their clothing. They pre-eminently avoid calicoes of
many colours, the evidences of machine industry which art has deserted. It is
precisely in the matter of colour that the characteristic of a geographical region
often lies. The hard red, white, and. black, is typical of New Britain and the
surrounding parts. One of the districts richest in colour is North- West America,
which makes the contrast all the more striking as we pass from the Alaskan region
to the Magemuts and Kuskwogmuts, whose flat round masks, with their crowns
Ornamental goblet from West Africa. ( British Museum. )
SCIENCE AND ART
of leathers, are coloured white, gray, and dingy brown. One seems to have come
back from a spnng meadow of many colours into winter. The pegs of green
stone m their lips, the dark brown wooden dishes inlaid with white bone, the thin
strings of pearls twined round ears and lips, do not give a very strong colouring
to the snowy landscape.
Many as are the directions in which style varies, the degrees of development
are yet more various. In originality, fineness, and richness, nothing can touch the
work of some of the Pacific races, especially the North-West Americans and their
neighbours farther north. Also some groups in Oceania, especially the Maoris •
we say nothing here about the still higher Peruvians. The richness of Polynesian
work IS astonishing, in spite of their limited materials— shells, coco-nut shells,
a little wood and stone. In these laborious combinations of small things, there is
far more labour than in most of the African objects, which betray more talent than
industry. The Africans and Malays, who are provided with iron and other things
from Asia, achieve less in proportion than the isolated Eskimo. The position of
Japan, with its wealth of
most successful imita-
tions from Nature,
seems less strange when
we consider the num-
ber and the careful
execution of human and
animal figures among
the tribes of the Pacific.
Whereas the Moorish
Arabic style runs
throughout Africa, the
Indian style through Malaysia, all the inhabitants of the North Pacific are
allied by similarity of style with Japan. Australia and South America, excepting
Peru, stand apart as less fertile but original territories. Materials, too, are
unequally apportioned and used. The African works in iron and ivory, and
leather or hide ; the Australian in wood or stone ; the man of the far north
in walrus tusk. The Polynesian produces his best results working in stone
and shells ; some American tribes surpass all others in pottery. The reaction
of the material upon the art, however, is often over-estimated. The patient
hand of the ancient Mexican shaped the most artistic works in the most
refractory stone, such as obsidian. The material is of only small importance in
regard to the degree to which arts and crafts are developed among the natural
races. Australia, with its wealth of timber, produces less in the way of woodwork
than some small island which possesses nothing but coco -nut. The material
often gives its direction to the technique, but does not determine it. Similarly it
imparts faint shades of colour, but the human intellect and will is at the root of the
matter. The achievements of the Africans in iron, to some extent combined with
copper and brass, are pre-eminent. They avail themselves with naive acuteness
and taste of the special properties of the material. But none of their performances
excels the perfection of a beautifully polished and perforated stone hammer.
Everything which they produce lacks the fine beauty of perfect finish, and more
especially proportion. A nation's sports are a valuable evidence of its mode of
Chains made of walrus-teeth, from Aleutia. (City Museum,- Frankfort O. M. )
76
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
life and view of life. Many gain a special interest from the fact of their having
spread with scarcely perceptible variations over very wide regions. Any one who
knows the multitude of the games in which, among simple races, children and
adults take part with ever fresh pleasure, and considers the simplicity of many of
them, cannot but remark that in the life of these races there is an element reminis-
cent of childhood in the careless squandering of time, and the limited demands
made on life. In the small area of the Solomon Islands and Northern New
Hebrides, including the Banks Islands, we find hide and seek, prisoner's base, foot-
ball, stump and ball, games akin to morra, hoops, exercises in spear-throwing and
archery. When the harvest has been reaped, they fly kites ; and in connection
with the yam harvest the game of tika is eagerly played between contending
villages. On moonlight nights, the villagers go round the circle of gossips, hidden
behind a screen, and making their friends guess at their identity.
§ 8. INVENTION AND DISCOVERY
Essential characters of invention — Primitive science — Finding and retaining — Difficulty of a tradition in the
lower stages — How inventions get forgotten — Pottery in Polynesia — Importance of individual inventions in
primitive conditions — 7a/a^Obscure derivation of such culture as is possessed by "natural" races —
Examples of imitation and other correspondences — No race is whoU)' without external relations — Ethno-
graphic poverty and impoverishment — Distinctions of degree in evolution — Monbuttus — Curious cases of
special development — Kingsmill Islands — Difficulty of determining relative degrees of culture.
The material progress of mankind rests upon an ever-ideepening and widening
study of natural phenomena, from which results a corresponding increase in the
Kaffir fire-sticks, for producing fire by friction. One-fourth real size. (Museum of the Berlin Mission.)
wealth of means at a man's disposal /or his own emancipation, and for the
improvement and embellishment of his life. The discovery how to make fire by
friction was an act of the intellect which in its own degree demanded as much
thinking power as the invention of the steam-engine. The inventor of the bow or
the harpoon must have been a genius, whether his contemporaries thought him one
or not. And then as now, whatever intellectual gains were due to natural sugges-
tions must have grown up in the individual intellect, in order, when circumstances
were favourable, to make its way to the minds of several or riiany persons. Only
suggestions of a lower, less developed kind, such as we may call quite Generally
tones of mind, appear like epidemics in many simultaneously, and are capable as
it were of giving their tone to the mental physiognomy of a race. Intellectual
INVENTION AND DISCOVERY 77
games are individual achievements, and the history of even the simplest discovery
is a fragment of the intellectual history of mankind.
When primitive man was brought naked into the world, Nature came to meet
him in two ways. She gave him the materials of food, clothing, weapons, and so
forth, and offered him suggestions as to the most suitable methods of turning them
to account. It is with these suggestions that we have now to concern ourselves.
In invention, as in all that is spiritual in man, the external world, mirrored in his
soul, plays a part. We cannot doubt that much has been taken from it. The
agreement between type and copy seems very close when we find the tail of a
gnu or eland used by the Bushmen of South Africa, just as it was by its first
owner, to keep off the flies of that fly-abounding region ; or when Peter Kolb
relates how the Hottentots look only for such roots and tubers as are eaten by
the baboons and other animals. When we come to consider the evolution of
agriculture, we shall discover many other cases of similar suggestions ; justifying
us in the reflection that in the lower stages of culture man is nearer to the beast,
learns from it more easily, and, similarly, has a larger share of brute -instinct.
Other discoveries go back to the earliest observations of the sequence of cause
and effect ; and with the course of discovery the beginnings of science also reach
back to the earliest ages of mankind. Some natural occurrence strikes a man ;
he wishes to see it repeated, and is thus compelled to put his own hand to it.
Thus he is led to inquire into the particulars of the occurrence and its causes.
But it is the individual alone who, in the first instance, makes the discovery
and profits by it. More is required if it is to become an addition to the store of
culture such as the history of culture can take into account. For the mode in
which the acquisitions of the intellect are amassed is twofold. First, we have the
concentrated creative force of the individual genius, which brings one possession
after another into the treasury of mankind ; and secondly, the diffusion of these
among the masses, which is a preliminary condition of their preservation. The
discovery which the individual keeps to himself dies with him ; it can survive
only if handed down. The degree of vitality possessed by discoveries depends,
therefore, upon the force of tradition ; and this again upon the internal organic
interdependence of the generations. Since this is strongest in those classes who
either have leisure or are led by their calling to attend to intellectual matters,
even in their most primitive form, the force which tends to preserve what the
intellect has won is also dependent on the social organisation. And lastly, since
a store of intellectual possession has a stimulating effect upon creative minds,
which would otherwise be condemned to be always beginning anew, everything
which strengthens the force of tradition in a race will have a favourable effect
upon the further development of its store of ideas, discoveries, inventions. Those
natural conditions, therefore, may be regarded as indirectly most especially
favourable to intellectual development, which affect the density of the whole
population, the productive activity of individuals, and therewith the enrichment
of the community. But the wide extension of a race and abundant possibilities
of commerce are also operative in this direction. If we consider, not finding only,
but the preservation of what has been found — by diffusion through a wide sphere
and incorporation with the permanent stock of culture, — is essential to invention,
we shall comprehend that this element of invention, so important for progress,
will not attain an equally effective character in all stages of civilization. Every-
78
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
thing tends to limit its
effectiveness in the lower
stages, for the lower we
go in civilization, the less
is the interdependence of
men kept up ; and for
this reason the progress
of culture in the other
direction acquires an ac-
celerated pace.
How many inventions
of men may have been
lost in the long ages be-
fore great communities
were formed ! Even to-
day how many do we see
fallen with their inventors
into oblivion, or, in the
most favourable case,
laboriously dug up again
and so preserved ? And
who can measure the
inertia of the stubborn
opposition which stands in
the way of the birth of
new ideas ? We may
remember Cook's descrip-
tion of the New Zealanders
in the report of his second
voyage : " The New Zea-
landers seem perfectly
content with the scraps of
knowledge which they
possess, without showing
the least impulse to im-
prove upon them. Nor
do they show any parti-
cular curiosity either in
their questions or their
remarks. Novelties do
not surprise them as much
as one would expect ; nay,
they do not hold their
attention for an instant."
We know now that on
the remote Easter Island
writing, the most important of inventions, was generally known,
have died out there without leaving any offspring.
It seems to
INVENTION AND DISCOVERY T)
What a vista of eternally futile starts opens when we think of this mental
immobility and this lack of quickening interdependence ! We get a feeling that
all the sweat which the struggle after new improvements has cost our age of
inventions is. but a drop in the ocean of labours wherein the inventors of primitive
times were submerged. The germ of civilization will not grow in every soil.
The bulk of civilized methods which a race is capable of assimilating is in direct
proportion to its, average of civilization. Anything that is offered to it beyond
this is only received externally, and remains of no importance to the life of the
race, passing as time goes on into oblivion or rigidity. To this must be referred
the ethnographical poverty found in the lower strata of ethnographically richer
races.
If we draw conclusions from certain acquisitions of culture which may be found
among a people, such as garden plants, domestic animals, implements, and the
like, to its contact with some other people, we may easily forget this simple but
important circumstance. Many institutions among the inhabitants of our mountains
fail to betray the fact that they have lived for ages in the neighbourhood of a high
civilization; the Bushmen have appropriated astonishingly little of the more copious
store of weapons, implements, dexterity, possessed by the Bechuanas. On the
one side the stock of culture progresses, on the other it retrogrades or stands still,
a condition into which a movement, evidently in its nature not strong, easily passes.
This is an instructive phenomenon, and a comparison of various degrees of this
stationariness is specially attractive. Any one who starts with the view that pottery
is a very primitive invention, less remote than almost any other from the natural
man, will note with astonishment, not . in Australia only but in Polynesia, how a
talented race, in the face of needs by no means inconsiderable, manages to get
along without that art. And when he finds it in existence only in Tonga and
the small Easter Island at the extreme eastern limit of Polynesia, he will be apt
to think how much more the intercourse between lands and islands has contributed
to the enrichment of men's stock of culture than has independent invention. But
that even here again intercourse is very capricious, we learn from the absence of
this art among the Assiniboines of North America, next door to the Mandans,
who excel in it. Here we learn that inventions do not spread like a prairie-fire,
but that human will takes a hand in the game which, not without caprice,
indolently declines some things and all the more readily accepts others. The
tendency to stand still at a stage that has been once reached is greater in
proportion as the average of civilization is lower. You do just what is enough and
no more. Just because the Polynesians were able to heat water by putting red'
hot stones into it, they would never have proceeded to pottery without foreign aid.
We must beware of thinking even simple inventions necessary. It seems far more
correct to credit the intellect of " natural " races with great sterility in all that does
not touch the most immediate objects of life. Migrations may also have given
occasion for sundry losses, since the raw material often occurs only in limited
quantity, and every great migration causes a rift in tradition. Tapa plays an im-
portant part among the Polynesians, but the Maoris lost the art of its manufacture.
In these lower stages of civilization the whole social life is much more dependent
upon the rise than upon the loss of some simple invention than is the case in the
higher. The nearer life stands to Nature, the thinner the layer of culture in which
it is rooted, the shorter the fibres which it strikes down to the natural soil, the
8o THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
more comprehensive, the further-reaching every change in that soil naturally is.
The invention of the way to manufacture clothing, whether in the form of woven
stuffs or of beaten bark, is surely natural and yet rich in results. The entire
refinement of existence among the natural races of Polynesia, resting upon clean-
liness and modesty, and sufficient by itself to give them a high place, is
inconceivable without the inconspicuous material known as tapa. Bark is con-
verted into a stuff for clothing, which provides not only a plentiful covering
for the body but also a certain luxury in the frequent change it allows, a
certain taste in wearing and in the selection of colours and patterns, and, lastly,
a means of amassing capital by preserving stores of this material which are always
convertible. Think, on the other hand, of an Eskimo's skin coat or a Negress's
leather apron, which are worn through successive generations and laden with the
dirt of them. Tapa, a material which can be provided in quantities without much
trouble, naturally represses the weaver's art, which can only have proceeded by a
long and toilsome road from plaiting. In the lake-dwellings there are products
which, with equal justice, are referred to both one and the other form of work.
This suggests the relations between basket-weaving and pottery ; large earthen-
ware vessels were made by covering baskets with clay. There is no need on this
account, with William H. Holmes, to call the whole art of pottery, as contrasted
with plaiting, a " servile art," but this outgrowth is instructive.
The fact that the most necessary kinds of knowledge and dexterity are spread
throughout mankind, so that the total impression of the stock of culture possessed
by the " natural " races is one of a fundamental uniformity, gives rise to a further
feeling that this scanty stock is only the remains of a larger total of possessions
from which all that was not absolutely necessary has gradually dropped out.
Or can we suppose that the art of producing fire by friction made its way all
alone through the world, or the art of making bows and arrows ? To discuss
these questions is important, not only in order to estimate the measure of the
inventive talent possessed by natural races, but also to obtain the right perspective
for the history of primitive humanity, for it must be possible to read in the stock
of culture, if anywhere, from what elements and by what ways mankind of to-day
has become what it is. Now if we pass in review what is possessed by the natural
races in artifices, implements, weapons, and so on, and deduct what is and has
been imported, in some cases already to a large extent, by means of trade with
modern civilized races, we are inclined to form a high conception of their inventive
talent. But what guarantee have we of the independent discovery of all these
things ? Undoubtedly before there were any relations with Europeans, relations
existed with other races which reached down to these lower strata, and thus
many a crumb must have fallen here from the richly spread tables of the old
civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China, and Japan, and has continued
here in a mutilated shape perhaps quite alien to the original uses served by it.
The ethnographer knows cases enough of such borrowings ; every single race
shows examples of them. Nor is the examination of their nature and significance
anything new. We may specially recall an original remark of Livingstone's
which, though made with another intention, is fairly applicable here : " The
existence of various implements which are in use among the Africans and other
partially civilized races, points to the communication of an instruction which
must have proceeded at some time or another from a superhuman being." Think
INVENTION AND DISCOVERY
as we may about the conclusion of this remark, its main point is fully justified as
a contradiction of the widespread assumption that everything which natural races
have to show of their own came into existence in the place where it is now seen,
and was invented by those races themselves. When we find all races in Africa,
from Moors to Hottentots, producing and working iron ^fter one and the same
method, it is far more probable that this art reached them all from a common
source than that it was independently discovered in all parts alike. At one time
people pointed triumphantly to the turkey as an animal which had been inde-
pendently domesticated by barbarous races, until Spencer Baird discovered in
Mexico the ancestor of this ill-tempered sovereign of the poultry-yard. In the
matter of utensils, borrowing from civilization is naturally more difficult to prove,
since these do not, like plants and animals, bear about them, however obliterated,
the marks of their origin. But may not the Indian, who got his maize from
Mexico, have learnt from the same quarter the art of his delicate stone-work ?
Such introduction, together with its consequence of the widest possible propagation,
must seem to us more natural than the independent invention of one and the
same utensil, or one and the same touch of art in a dozen different places. Atten-
tion has been quite recently called to the fact that the Solomon Islanders have
bows and arrows, while the inhabitants of New Ireland and others in the neigh-
bourhood have not, and people were quite ready to credit the former with the
invention of this ingenious weapon. As has been already pointed out, people
are, in this matter, wonderfully inconsistent. On the one hand the natural races
are put down to the level of the brute, on the other hand inventions are ascribed
to them which are, at least, not of an easy kind. One is always too apt to think
of invention as easy, considering only the difficulties of finding out, which for a
brain of genius are small ; but it is otherwise with the retaining of what has been
found out. In some cases it has been possible to penetrate down to the more remote
origin of apparently quite spontaneous productions of " natural " races. Bastian
has compiled a list of cases in which certain elements of European civilization
have been formally imitated ; a good instance being the characteristic Fijian form
of club copied from a musket of the last century. The savages thought they would
have the dreaded weapon at least in wood, and produced a club remarkably ill-
adapted to its proper purpose. A, head-dress used in the New Hebrides is a
colossal exaggeration of an admiral's cocked -hat. The remarkable cross-bow
used by the Fans is more to the purpose. It reached the Fans of the interior from
the Portuguese discoverers on the west coast, and they retained the pattern, while
on the coast firearms came into use, as in Europe. Now, after four hundred years,
the cross-bow turns up again ; but as the Fans have neither the patience nor the
tools to fashion a lock, they slit the stock, and use the cross-bow to shoot little
poisoned arrows which might just as well be shot from a light long-bow.
If it were less difficult to seize the manifestations of intellectual life among
the lower races, we should be able to gather a much richer harvest among them.
Indian traces run through the religion of the Malays, and extend perhaps to
Melanesia and Polynesia. We find such striking similarities, especially in the
cosmogonic legends of Bushmen and Australians, Polynesians, and North Americans,
that nothing but tradition is left to explain them. So in the domain of politics
we find points of accord. The institutions of. Kazembe's country, as described by
Lacerda and Livingstone, or Muata Jamvo's, as reported by Pogge and Buchner,
G
82
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
remind us partly of India, partly of ancient Egypt. In the domain of social and
political conceptions and institutions, the coincidences are striking. The deeper
we search into these matters, the more convinced we are of the correctness of an
expression used by Bastian at a date when the sharp division of races was a
gospel, and the unity of mankind was scouted. In his Journey to San Salvador
he says : " Even to the islands slumbering on the bosom of the Pacific, ocean-
currents seem to have driven the message of the more abstract triumphs of
civilization ; perhaps even to the shores of the American continent." We may
be permitted to add the conclusion that no one understands the natural races
who does not make due allowance for their intercourse and connection, often dis-
guised as it is, with each other, and with civilized peoples. There is, and always
has been, more intercourse between them than one would suppose from a super-
ficial observation. Thus, long before the Nile route was opened
to traffic, wares of European origin, especially pearls, made their
way from Darfour by Hofrat el Nahas, even to the Azandeh.
Where strong resemblances occur, the question of intercourse, of
communication from abroad, should always be raised in the first
instance ; in many cases possibly that of very direct intercourse.
We think that we are quite justified in asking whether it is not
by fugitive slaves that so many elements of African civilization
have been spread through South America. For centuries the
Japanese have had very little intercourse with the races of the
North Pacific ; yet it may be that we ought to refer to some
such intercourse as this (which, in truth, not only enlarges, but,
as time goes on, always tends to decompose) the wicker armour
worn by the Chukchis, so like Japanese armour. Thus, however,
races formerly depended on each other ; and no more than at
present was there ever on this earth, so far as our historical know-
ledge shows, a group of men who could be said to be devoid of
relations with others. Everywhere we see agreements, similarities,
affinities, radiating out till they form a close network over the
earth ; even the most remote islanders can only be understood
when we take into account their neighbours, far and near.
These most remote islands, too, show how indigenous industries always
dwindle where European or American manufactures come. When Hamilton
visited Car Nicobar in 1790, the women wore a kind of short petticoat, made of
tufts of grass or rushes strung in a row, which simply hung down ; now they
universally cover up their bodies with stuff cloths. Thus a century's progress has
resulted in the replacing of the grass petticoat by woven materials. Meanwhile,
the domestic industry perishes, and no new dexterity arises in its stead. On the
lower Congo we no longer find the bark-stuffs and fine webs which Lopez and
other travellers of the sixteenth century prized so highly. Where, too, is the art
of grinding amber and obsidian, , which produced such conspicuous results in
ancient Mexico ? or the goldsmith's work and tapestry of the old Peruvians ?
For estimating the importance of external suggestion, nothing is more instruc-
tive than the consideration of races which are poorest in an ethnographical sense.
Of them we can say that they are invariably also those whose intercourse with
others is scantiest. Why are the most remote races at the extremities of the
Human figure and
jnedusa in walrus-
ivory, from (?)
Tahiti. (Vienna
Ethnograpiiical
Museum. )
INVENTION AND DISCOVERY
83
continents or on the less accessible islands the most destitute ? Ethnographic
poverty is only in part a consequence of the penury, the general poverty, which
presses on a people. This has been readily recognised in the case of many races,
as, for instance, the Australians, whose life on the arid steppes of their continent,
almost destitute of useful plants and animals, is one of the poorest and most
depressed that has been allotted to any race on the earth. But even in the
most favoured northern tracts within the tropics, they are almost totally devoid of
that tendency to the artistic adornment of existence which flourishes so profusely
among their Papuan neighbours, and forms the luxury of barbarous races. In
this case we need not seek far for the causes of their ethnographical poverty.
Every glance at the conditions and mode of these people's life shows how sharp
is their struggle to maintain bare existence, but it also shows the impoverishing
Shell and bone fish-hooks from Oceania, The larger one on the right probably of North American
origin. (Vienna Ethnographical Museum.)
effects of remoteness from the great streams of traffic. The out-of-the-way
situation of Australia, southern South America, the interior of South Africa, and
eastern Polynesia, exercises the same impoverishing influence everywhere upon the
indigenous races. If any one is inclined to see in this a sort of contagion of
poverty, referable to the smaller number of suggestions offered under these
conditions by Nature to the mind, and especially to the fancy, he must beware of
hasty conclusions. Easter Island, though small, and by nature poor, is ethno-
graphically rich ; and hardly any barbarous race is superior in artistic develop-
ment to the Eskimo.
We know how the utensils and weapons of civilized races have spread as it
were by stages and continue to spread to races which previously possessed no
notion of them. When Stanley crossed the Dark Continent, on his first remark-
able journey along the Congo, the last point where firearms were seen in native
hands was left on the east at the famous market-town of Nyangwe. He came
upon them again to the westward at Nbenga, 6° north of Nyangwe, in the shape
of those four old Portuguese muskets, ever to be historical as the first sign from
which the party learned, at the most critical moment of their journey, " that we had
not missed the way, and that the great stream really reached the sea." Nyangwe
and Nbenga are on the borders of an area of 200,000 to 250,000 square miles
wherein firearms, with which the coasts of Africa have roared these four hundred
years, were a few years ago unknown. It is true that other things have been
84
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
I if
t
more quickly diffused, as for instance those American products
\yhich were not brought here till the sixteenth century — tobacco,
maize, and potatoes. But they too have travelled by stages ;
the Damaras have only come to know tobacco within the last
few dozen years.
To this fact of the importance of intercourse we must
ascribe the striking uni-
formity of motive seen
in productions of ethno-
graphical interest even
in rich districts ; as
when the island-world
of Melanesia and Poly-
nesia, so far as concerns
the distribution of uten-
sils and weapons, pre-
sents the picture of a
meadow in which the
same main elements
spring up everywhere in
the vegetation, thinner
in one place, thicker in
another, here showing
better, here less good
condition, and only
rarely mingled with
such peculiar growths
as wonderfully animate
the picture. And just
as amid the monotonous
herbage on the barren
soil of a steppe, we
often suddenly see one
plant above the rest un-
fold itself in luxuriance,
so is it here. The in-
tellect of races, torpid as
it is in the matter of
following up what it has got, suddenly receives from some side
or other an impulse towards freer unfolding. It is well worth
while to study first these isolated developments, even in the
grotesque. It is interesting too to see at what manifold forms
the people of small islands in Polynesia have arrived in a set of
fish-hooks, through their devotion to fishing ; or how others, by
dint of a consistent progress in a definite direction, have appro-
priated some remarkable style of weapon, demanding much
industry and ingenuity. The art of fitting-up weapons with
sharks' teeth, to such an extent that one might suppose one
I. •«
Weapons set with shark's teeth, from the Gilbert
Islands. (Munich Ethnographical Museum.)
INVENTION AND DISCOVERY
85
constant
an area
weapons
had to do with a people of no small numbers and strength, living in
war, reached its highest point in the Gilbert or Kingsmill Islands with
of 185 square miles and a population of not more than 35,000. These
surpass in gruesomeness those of any
other race in Polynesia, and the
equipment which corresponds to them
is brought to a finish that we find
nowhere else but in Japan and New
Guinea. Thus under uniformity of
fundamental idea almost every island-
group conceals its own more or less
perfected special features ; even if it
be only that invariable little human
figure, easily overlooked, found on all
Tongan carved-work. Among con-
tinental races such features naturally
are more limited in their appearance.
But even here, every circle of culture,
however narrow, has its own little
peculiarities, which establish them-
selves with a certain consistency in
the niost various domains. Just as among the West Africans we can point to
the predilection for representing what is ugly, as a characteristic of this kind, so
Carved and painted figure from Dahomey.
Ethnographical Museum. )
Zanza, a musical instrument used over a great part of Central and South Africa.
among the forest-negroes we have the frequent employment of banana-leaves in
the place of leather, hide, or stuff — a theme upon which the Monbuttus play
endless variations. This race offers at the same time an interesting example of
a general high-development of industry under favourable conditions. When the
storms of the period passed harmless round a peaceful oasis, as was once the
86
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
case with Monbuttuland, the rich soil of wealth in material and natural ability-
allowed a fine flower to expand ; destined however to a short existence. Its
fame spread far and wide in Africa. The actual discovery of the Monbuttus by
Schweinfurth was preceded by rumours, reaching even to Europe, not only of
their brown colour, but of their high degree of civilization ; and that traveller
himself reports that even in the district of the Bahr-el-Ghazal he gathered from
the conversation of the ivory-traders how they were looked upon as a peculiar
and distinguished people. But, above all, the cleverness of the people in the
repair of warlike weapons
and peaceful utensils is
highly esteemed. The high
position which the negroes
of Africa hold in the manu-
facture of the most varied
musical instruments is quite
a unique phenomenon, and
has provided endless ma-
terial for eulogistic descrip-
tions. Yet with all this the
industry of the Monbottus
always remains a negro- in-
dustry, often applied to the
same themes as we find
among the Nile negroes
and the Kaffirs. One of
the most difficult tasks we
can undertake is when, as
here, we have to define a
gradation in the degree of
perfection reached by any
branch of human activity,
and yet at the same time
such tasks are among those
that can best be justified if
any genealogical conclusion
difference in the develop-
Fan warrior with crossbow. (After Dii Chaillu. )
is to be drawn from this gradation. We notice
ment of shipbuilding between two races dwelling so near each other as the
Fijians and Tongans ; the latter, of Polynesian descent, in this matter surpassing
to a noteworthy extent the Fijians, who are to be reckoned among Melanesians.
The difference is not great, but very important, since it contributes to the confirma-
tion of our view that the Melanesians, who have been longer established, received
the high development of their shipbuilding and navigation from the later arrived
Polynesians, and not vke-versd. Yet it is obviously always difficult to judge with
certainty in such a case, all the more so that a race superior in general culture
may in the matter of individual points of knowledge and knack be behind some
who on the whole belong to a lower stage. The superiority in smith's work of
the Djurs over the Nubians, or the manifest advantage which the Musgus possess
as agriculturists over their Soudanese masters, appears an anomaly. The clever-
AGRICULTURE AND CATTLE-BREEDING 87
ness of the negroes in both thefee directions has astonished even Europeans. If the
facts were not so clear, any one would be predisposed to ascribe to people like the
Arabs or Borneans, who in many other respects possess so superior a civilization,
the education of the negroes to the excellence which they have attained in these
arts. But the very fact that the Arabs had something to learn from the negroes
in agriculture and house-building testifies to the antiquity in Africa of an indigenous
semi-civilization based upon agriculture.
It is quite wrong to believe that we do not meet with division of labour before
reaching a somewhat advanced stage of economic development : Central Africa
has its villages of blacksmiths, nay, of smiths who only make throwing-knives ;
New Guinea its potter villages ; North America its finishers of arrowheads. Hence
arise those remarkable social and political groins which from guilds become castes,
and from castes privileged classes in a race. Hunting-races, who stand towards
the agriculturist in a mutual relation of traffic in products, are scattered with
special frequency about Africa. Besides these specialised activities there are
others distributed among those people who practise their art only occasionally as
need requires. The form and fashion of their work therefore often appears in the
shape of a busy idleness. A man who has just then nothing better to do polishes
a great trochus for an arm band, or files some other kind of shell for a finger
ring, or prefers to do the engraved work on a club to which he has for years
past devoted his leisure. This habit of working with the most liberal expenditure
of time, and quite at ease, goes far to explain the perfection of the things produced.
No doubt they are for the most part articles for immediate use and not for traffic,
and trade profits little by this limited though persevering labour ; whereas an
active trade is closely connected with the industries mentioned above.
§ 9. AGRICULTURE AND CATTLE-BREEDING
Origin of agriculture — First stages — Limitation of nature — Breeding animals — Taming animals — Influence
of cattle-breeding upon national destiny — Nomadism — Influence of agriculture — Low place taken by
agriculture among "natural" races — Food and feeding.
In view of man's profound dependence on Nature, none of the suggestions which
she ofi'ers to him will sooner prove beneficial than those which tend to modify that
dependence by so far as possible placing under his own control the bonds which
link him to the rest of the animated world. The way to this lies inthe permanent
appropriation by means of tillage and breeding of useful plants and animals.
Doubtless there never was a time when man could, without trouble, acquire
food, shelter, livelihood, by drawing upon Nature. Nature nowhere brings the
food to his mouth, nor roofs his hut adequately over his head. Even the
Australian who, in order to get his victuals, does no more than prepare a sharp
or spade-ended stick to grub roots, or chop nicks in the trees with his axe to
support his feet in climbing, or make weapons, fish-spear, net, or hook, or traps
for smaller animals, pitfalls for larger — even he must take some trouble, and that
not entirely bodily, to help himself. Even in his case the various artifices by
which he manages to exploit what Nature freely gives indicate a certain develop-
88
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
ment of the faculties. Nor does this go on regardless of rights and laws. The
Australians, like all other hunting races, even the Eskimo, are bound to definite
districts. It is only within their own hunting-grounds that they shift their
habitation according to the time of year and the supply of game.
It is, however, but a poorly productive capital that is invested in all these
dexterities and contrivances, which have only a momentary use, and from which
no permanent gains in the way of culture can accrue. From this situation,
dependent as it is, and for that very reason easy, man raises himself to a higher
stage by engaging Nature in certain directions to more durable performance. To -
this shaking-up and awakening, want is more favourable than abundance. In
many respects Nature comes to his aid, having supplied various countries very
variously with crops which can be made available for agriculture. We may.
regard as especially favourable those regions where there is a marked difference
in the seasons. Nature at one time emerging in the fullest creative vigour, at
another lying dead and be-
numbed, as in the steppes.
Some steppe regions con-
tain by no means a small
supply of food crops ; for
in the effort to hoard nutri-
ment and moisture for the
future germ during the dry
season. Nature has stored
in grains, tubers, bulbs, and
fruits exactly what man can
best use. These countries >.
then offer him not only the
inducement to store up and
put in barns, but, at the
same time the most suit-
Our varieties of crops must come in great measure
Stick used by Bushmen in digging roots, and stone weights for the same.
( Berlin Museum of Ethnology. )
able growths for the purpose,
from these regions.
When man sets to work to add something from his own resources to what
Nature does for him, a simple solution of the problem lies in an attempt to bottle
up as it were the sources of his food supply. Even now many of those
Australian races whom we regard as standing on the lowest step of civilization,
•strictly prohibit the pulling-up of plants which have edible fruit, and the destruc-
tion of birds' nests. They are content simply to let Nature work for them only
taking thought not to disturb her. Wild bees' nests are often emptied with' such
regularity that a kind of primitive bee-keeping grows up. So with other animals ■
man allows them to lay up the provision which he subsequently takes away, and
thus IS led in another direction to the verge of cultivation. Drege instances the
case of Arthratherum brevifolium, a grain-bearing grass in Namaqua-land, the
seed of which the Bushmen take from the ants.
Here Nature frames a check for man, and teaches him thrift. On the other
side, the tendency to settlement is encouraged. Where large provision of fruits
IS found whole tribes come at the gathering time from all sides, and remain as
long as the food lasts. Thus to this day the Zanderillos of Mexico come to the
AGRICULTURE AND CATTLE-BREEDING
sandy lowlands of the Coatzacoalco when the melons are ripe ; or the Ojibbeways
assemble round the marshes where the Zizania, or water-rice, grows ; or the
Australians hold a kind of harvest festivity in the neighbourhood of the
marsiliaceous plants which serve them for grain. Thus on two sides the barriers
of savage nature are broken down. The son of the desert is beginning to look
ahead, and is on the way
, to become settled. From
this stage to the great
epoch - making discovery
that he must commit the
seed to the earth in order
to stimulate Nature to
richer performance, may in
point of time have been
far, but as we think of it
the step does not seem
long.
The beginnings of
cattle - breeding show yet
further how man succeeded
in knitting an important
part of Nature with his
own fortunes. The roam-
ing barbarian, who for cer-
tain periods is quite away
from mankind, tries to get
from Nature either what is
most like himself, or what
seems less likely to make
him conscious of his own
weakness and smallness.
Now the animal world,
though separated by a deep
gulf from man of to-day,
includes, in its gentler and
more docile members, the
natural qualities with which
he likes best to associate
himself. The delight which Indians, or Dyaks, or Nile-negroes take in taming wild
animals is well known. Their huts are full of monkeys, parrots, and other playmates.
It may be that the strong impulse to companionship which exists in man may have
had more to do with the first effective step towards acquiring domestic animals than
any eye to the use to be made of them. Thus we find, no less among the lowest
races of existing mankind than in the remains of civilization anterior to the intro-
duction of domestic animals and cultivated plants, the dog as the sole permanent
companion ; and his usefulness is limited enough.^ Generally, indeed, it is difficult
■" [May not his use in hunting, which is considerable, have been discovered by men in the hunting-stage of
development ?]
Loango negress at field-work. (From a photograph by Dr. Falkenstein. )
9° THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
to draw any certain conclusion from the purpose which an animal serves in our
civilization, as to that for which man first associated him with himself. In Africa
and Oceania the dog is used for food. We may suppose that the horse and the
camel were in the first instance tamed, not so much for the sake of their speed
as for the milk of their females. A certain friendship, even in more civilized
countries, attaches the shepherd to the members of his flock. Thus cattle-farming
is a pursuit which arouses more enthusiasm than agriculture. It is more often
the men's work, and exercises a far deeper influence on all private and public
relations. Nowhere in Africa do the fruits of the field form to the same extent
as the herds the basis of life, the source of pleasure, the measure of wealth, the
means of acquiring all other desirable articles, especially women ; lastly even
currency, as when pecus gave its name to pecunia. Many a race has carried this
identification of its existence with its favourite animal to a dangerous excess.
Even when their stage of culture is well advanced these cattle-farming
peoples suffer from the narrow basis in which their livelihood rests. The Basutos
are, all things considered, the best branch of the great Bechuana stock, but the
theft of their cattle alone was enough to reduce them to impotence. Similarly the
rinderpest of recent years has ruined the Masai and Wagogo.
But the great influence which cattle-breeding produces upon a race is to make it
restless. Pastoral life and nomad life are practically synonymous. Even our own
alp-system, with its changes from valley to mountain pastures, is a fragment of
nomadism. Pastoral life requires wide spaces, and agrees with the restless' tendencies
of the more forcible races. The desert is preferred to the fertile country, as more
spacious. The Rhenish missionaries had specially to undertake the task of
inducing some of the Namaqua tribes to settle on fertile oases. How little nomads
care to utilise Nature more thoroughly we may learn from the fact that as a rule
they hoard no provision for the winter. In the country about Gobabis on the
Nosob River, Chapman found the grass growing a yard high, and so thick that
it would have been easy to make hay in abundance ; but as a rule the Namaquas
allowed it to be burnt without attempting to use it. This sort of indifference
tends to increase the contrast between nomadism and agriculture, and assumes
the character of a great obstacle to civilization. Prjewalski, in his account of his
first journey, has described this boundary, the boundary of both Nature and culture,
between steppe and farm land, between " the cold desert plateau and the warm,
fertile, and well-watered plain of China, intersected by mountain-chains," as marked
with wonderful sharpness. He agrees with Ritter that this question of situation L
is what decides the historic fortunes of races which inhabit countries closely
bordering on each other. When he enters the Ordos country — that steppe region,
so important in history, which lies in the bend of the upper Hoangho, — he says of
the races in those parts : " Dissimilar as they are, both in mode of life and in char- ^
acter, they were destined by Nature to remain alien to each other, and in a state
of mutual hatred. To the Chinese, a restless nomad life, full of privation, was
inconceivable and despicable ; the nomad looked with contempt at the life of his agri-
cultural neighbour with all its cares and toils, and esteemed his own savage freedom
the greatest happiness on earth. This is the actual source of the distinction in
character between the races : the laborious Chinese, who from time immemorial
has attained to a comparatively high and very peculiar civilization, always avoided
war, and looked on it as the greatest misfortune ; while on the other hand the
AGRICULTURE AND CATTLE-BREEDING
91
active and savage inhabitant of the Mongolian desert, hardened against all
physical consequences, was ever ready for raiding and reiving. If he failed he
lost but little, while in the event of success he secured the wealth accumulated by
the labour of several generations.''
Here we have the contrast between the most characteristically nomad race
and the most sedentary agriculturists, — a contrast with whose historical results in
many gradations we shall meet as we go along, in the chapters , of this book
which describe races. Only we must not forget that sedentary life in this degree
is found in a race of ancient civilization. It is otherwise with the " natural " races.
When we consider the position of agricultural barbarians, we shall often no doubt
attach less weight to the difference, in other respects of so much ethnographic
importance, between nomadic and settled races ; for what is the significance of
a sedentary mode of life if its great civilizing advantage, continuity, and security
of life, and if possible of progress, is
taken out of it? As a matter of
fact even the best cultivators among
the African races are astonishingly
movable ; and the majority of villages,
even of the smaller races, seldom re-
main for many generations in the
same spot. Thus the distinction be--'
tween pastoral and agricultural life
becomes much smaller. The African
Negro is the finest agriculturist of all '
" natural " races, except perhaps some
Malayan tribes, as, say, the Battaks
of Sumatra. He contends with a
luxuriant nature, fells trees, and burns
the coppice, to make room for the plough. Round the hut of a Bongo or a Musgu
you will find a greater varietjf of garden plants than in the fields and gardens of
a German village. He grows more than he requires, and preserves the surplus in
granaries above or under the ground. But the force of the soil and the man is not'
utilised to the full. It is a small cultivation, a kind of gardening. Codrington's
expression, " horticultural people," used by him of the Melanesians, may be applied
to many other " natural " races. Apart from the fact that the man does not in
many cases devote himself wholly to agriculture, imperfect tools tend to per-
petuate the lower stage. The women and children, with the unpractical hoes
shown in our illustrations, do no more than scratch the surface. The plough, not
to mention the harrow, has nowhere become customary among genuinely bar-
barous peoples ; manuring, except for the ashes of the burnt brushwood, just as
little. One much more often comes across terracing and artificial irrigation.
Agriculture, limited in the tropics by the hostility of the forces of Nature, is
equally so in the temperate zones by the lesser fertility of the soil, and the less
favourable climate. It was never carried on here to the same extent as in the
tropics, but rather formed a subsidiary branch of economy ; it fell mainly into
the hands of the women, and was a provision only for the utmost need. In con-
trast to the wide diffusion which newly-imported plants obtained among the
Africans, it is significant that the New Zealanders, though they were from the
Iron hoe from Kordofan. The blade is also used as cur-
rency— one-eighth real size. (Christy Collection.)
92
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
first very fond of potatoes, never planted any of their own free will, but, on the
contrary, grubbed up almost the whole of the ground which Captain Furneaux
had tilled for their benefit. Still, it is just here that, with persistence, agriculture
renders possible higher developments than cattle-farming can do. It is steadier,
and forces on a man the wholesome habit of labour. In Mexico and Peru it is ^
followed by the accumulation of capital, and the development of industry and
trade ; and therewith by the occasion for a fuller organisation of social ranks.
European cultivation is an entirely new system ; apart '
from its more effective implements and methods, it pro-
ceeds on broader lines. It has abandoned the gardening
style possessed by the agriculture of Negroes and Poly-
nesians, even by that of the industrious peoples of east
and south Asia.
This kind of agriculture does not make the daily
bread secure. Even the most active cultivators in Africa
have to go without security against changes of luck. The
behaviour of the elements cannot be reckoned upon.
Drought especially does not spare these tropical Paradises;
and famine often forms a scourge of the population in the
most fertile regions. This alone is sufficient to prevent -
these races from passing a certain line, beyond which their
development to a higher civilization is alone possible. AlK
the good of a good year is trodden out by a famine year
with its results of cannibalism and the sale of children.
In the tropics, too, damp makes the storage of provisions
difficult. In Africa, again, the devastation of ants and
weevils makes it hard to keep the chief crop, millet, till
the next harvest. However much they plant, and how--
ever plentiful the harvest turns out, everything must be
consumed in the year. This again is one reason why the
negroes brew so much beer. Herein, however, whatever ^
may be the fault of the climate, undoubtedly lies one of
the imperfections whereby agriculture will necessarily be
beset among a race in whose customs foresight and en-
durance are hardly developed, and are incapable of linking
the activities of individual persons and individual days with a strong thread of
necessary interdependence. And here, too, human foes, those " communists of -
nature " who equalise all property, take good care that the steady prosperity of
agriculture shall not create too deep a gulf between it and nomadism.
In the matter of food, " natural " races, even when they carry on agriculture, ^'■
strive with avidity to get animal adjuncts. Contrary to our physiological notions,
fat and blood are consumed in quantities even by purely tropical races, like the
Polynesians ; and it is just in these things that gluttony is practised. The
nearest approach to vegetarianism is made by the rice-planting peoples of east
Asia and the banana-planting negroes of the forest, as formerly by the civilized
races of America. The races of the far north eat, no doubt, more than we suppose
of wild plants ; but they rely especially on the fat and flesh of sea-mammals.
Some nomad groups support themselves with superstitious exclusiveness on meat "^
Hoe or gnibbing-axe of turtle-
bone, from the Mortlock
Islands. (British Museum.)
CLOTHING AND ORNAMENT 93
and milk. Roots are eagerly sought. Salt is liked in all parts of the earth, and
the fondness for meat and blood is based in some measure on the craving for it.
By rapid and thorough roasting the salts of the meat-juices are rendered more
highly serviceable. Every race in all parts of the earth has hit upon some means
of enjoying caffein compounds and alcohol. Tobacco is not the only narcotic
herb that is smoked. The methods of chewing betel and coca are strikingly
alike. The knowledge of many poisons has come to civilized races from barbarians.
§ lo. CLOTHING AND ORNAMENT
Complete nudity nowhere found as a regular custom — Caprice in the matter of clothing and non-clothing —
Better clothing is no absolute indication of higher culture — Fashion — Clothing begins as ornament —
Natural clothing materials — Climate has little influence on clothing — Example of the Fuegians — Eskimos
— Ornament found everywhere — Similarity of principle in ornament — Ornament and weapons — Mutilations
— Difference of ornament according to sex — Material of ornament — Ornament and trade — Precious
metals — Imitation pearls — Cleanliness.
We have heard tell of races to whom clothing is unknown ; but it must be said
that the few cases of this for which there is good evidence are exceptions that
have arisen under such special conditions as only to establish the rule. If,
however, we are to discover the principles which underlie the usage generally, the
first thing required is to come to an understanding as to what we mean by
clothing. It is surely impossible to designate mere ornament as clothing ; among
tribes in tropical countries the motive of protection against cold entirely disappears,
and of all the superfluity of our northern apparel, nothing remains save what is
required by decency. One need hardly discuss the question whether there is
any thought of simply protecting the parts concealed. If it were a question
of protection, the feet and ankles would surely be sooner covered. What is most
decisive is the observed fact that clothing stands in unmistakable relation to the
sexual life, and that the first to wear complete clothes is not the man who has to
dash through the bush in hunting, but the married woman. This gives us the
primary cause of wrappings, which must have arisen when the family was evolved
from the unregulated intercourse of the horde, — when the man began to assert a
claim to individual and definite women. He it was who compelled the woman to
have no dealings with other men, and to cover herself as a means of diminishing
her attractions. As a further step in this direction may be noted the veiling of
the bosom. From this root, the separation of the sexes, sprang the feeling of
modesty ; this developed powerfully, and clothing with it. It was a great stride ;
since the more confined and more destitute the life of a tribe is, the less induce-
ment is given to a rigid separation of the sexes with its attendant jealousy ; and
the more readily do they dispense with the troublesome covering, of which scanty
fragments alone remain. Thus it is always the smallest, most degraded, most
out-of-the-way tribes among whom we more especially find no mention of
customary clothing ; such as some Australian races, the extinct Tasmanians, some
forest tribes of Brazil, and here or there a negro horde. Even with them survivals
of dress are not wanting. When clothing was more complete, the woman gained
94
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
immensely in charm, esteem, and social position, so that she had every reason to
keep up her wardrobe.
It is quite otherwise with the portion of the dress intended directly to protect
the body. In all places we find the shoulder-covering in the shape of a cloak.
Tropical tribes use it
primarily to keep off the
rain, while in colder
climates it serves for
warmth and also as a
sleeping -cover. These
cloak-like articles of
clothing are far less
v/idely diffused than
those which serve for
decency ; which also
proves that the latter
were the first clothing
worn by men.
Another circum-
stance undoubtedly has
contributed to develop
the sense of modesty, as
Karl von den Steinen
has pointed out. As
the wild beast drags his
prey into the thicket, in
order to devour it un-
disturbed, so some tribes
think it highly inde-
corous to look at any
one eating ; and the
same may have held
good in regard to other
functions. Still this can
only have been sub-
sidiary, and does not
account for the original
concealment. Finally
we must not overlook
the superstitious dread
Woman of the Azandeh, or Nyam-Nyams.
Richard Buchta. )
(From a photograph by
of the possible effects of the evil eye, though here again this cannot be rightly
assigned as the root-idea of modesty. Curiously enough, in New Guinea no
more than in ancient Greece do the representations of ancestors, with their free
exhibition of what in the living is carefully concealed, seem to give any offence
But a these various causes tend to react upon and supplement each other
mutually. Further, no relation can be traced between the amount of clothine
worn and the degree of culture attained. The lady of Uganda or Unyoro
who drapes herself with elaborate care in her robes of bark, stands in gerieral
CLOTHING AND ORNAMENT
95
no higher than the Nj^am-Nyam negress, whose sole garment is a leaf. Nor
do the former race, who treat it as a capital offence to strip in public, hold any
higher position than the Duallas, \\'ho take off every rag for their work in the
sea. Nor, lastly, do we find any marked national distinctions in these matters.
All things considered, we may say that in mankind of to-day modesty is universal ;
and where it seems to be lacking, this is due to some accidental or transitory
conditions.
But this is not the only feeling which
the simple man is endeavouring to satisfy
when he clothes his body. Next to it stands
the gratification of vanity. The former
motive, as a mere injunction of custom, is
quickly done with ; the other is sought to
be attained at any cost. One may say with-
out exaggeration that many races spend the
greater part of their thought and their labour
on the adornment of their persons. These
are in their own sphere greater fops than
can be found in the highest civilization. The
traders who deal with these simple folk know
how quickly the fashions change among
them, as soon as a plentiful importation of
varied stuffs and articles of ornament takes
place. The natural man will undergo any
trouble, any discomfort, in order to beautify
himself to the best of his power.
Thus it would obviously be unjust to
form any judgment as to the absence or
deficiency of clothing without regard to the
other attentions which the " natural " races
pay to the body. If we look at all together
we get an impression of predominant frivolity.
Necessaries have to gi\'e way to luxuries.
The poorest Bushman makes himself an
arm-ring out of a strip of hide, and never
forgets to wear it, though it may well happen
that his leather apron is in a scandalously tattered state. The man of low culture
demands much more luxury compared with his small means than one in a higher
stage. Ornament holds such a foremost place that some ethnologists have
declared it impossible to decide where clothing ends and ornament begins. All
clothing seems to them to have proceeded by way of modification from ornament ;
and they hold that modesty played no part in the earliest evolution of dress.
The facts no doubt show that the delight in ornament preponderates over the
sense of decency ; but it does not follow that it was anterior.
Modesty in the woman is especially apt to take on a touch of coquetry, for
an example of which we need look no further than the low-necked dresses of our
own ball-rooms. In this way what was once an article essential to decency imper-
ceptibly approximates more and more to ornament by the addition of fringes, or.
Princess of Unyoro, dressed in baric-cloth,
a photograph by Richard Buchta. )
(From
96
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
as among the Fans and some of the Congo tribes, by the attachment of strings
of jingling bells. Even more grotesque combinations of concealment and parade
may be observed ; especially where there is a religious motive for the former.
The style and completeness of the clothing naturally depends in great measure
upon the extent to which Nature or labour has provided material. All countries
are not so benevolently furnished in this respect as tropical Brazil, where the
\''illage chief of the Loango coast, with wife and dignitary. (From a photograph by Dr. Fallcenstein. )
"shirt-tree," a kind of Lecythis, grows with its pliant and easily-stripped bark.
The Indians cut up the stem into lengths of 4 or 5 feet, strip the bark off, soak
and beat it soft, cut two armholes, and the shirt is ready. In the same forests
grows a palm, the spathe of which provides a convenient cap without further
preparation. The fig-leaf of Paradise recurs in a thousand variations, and
celebrates its revival by appearing in manifold forms, even to the universal
rush-cloak.
The use of bark as a clothing material is, or was, widely spread from Polynesia
to the west coast of Africa. It recurs in America, and thus is found in all lands
CLOTHING AND ORNAMENT
97
within the tropics ; and besides this, the bast or inner bark of the lime was used
for a similar purpose in old days by Germanic tribes. The laws of Manu
prescribe to the Brahman who purposes to end his days in religious meditation
amid the primeval forests, that he shall wear a garment of bark or skin. Here
probably, as in Africa, the bark of a species of Ficus was used for the purpose. But
in Polynesia the manufacture of a material called tapa from the bark of the paper-
mulberry was carried to great perfection. Races who no longer make use of this
material procure it for special occasions. Thus the more settled Kayans of Borneo,
when they go into mourning, throw off
their cotton sarongs to wrap themselves
in bark -cloth ; and on the west coast of
Africa, at certain festivities connected
with fetish-worship, it is usual to wear
skins instead of clothes. In this there
lies a perfectly right sentiment, that these
home - invented garments, borrowed
directly from Nature, have a higher
intrinsic value than the rubbishy Euro-
pean fripperies, the invasion of which
has made clothing arbitrary and un-
dignified.
How little the great schoolmistress
Want can impress upon the " natural "
races that seriousness which behaves
appropriately at the bidding of hardship,
is shown by comparing the dwellers in
a severe climate with those who live
under more genial skies. The South
Australians and Tasmanians hardly
^\ore more clothes than the Papuas.
Considering the abundance of animals,
we can only refer the scantiness of their
attire to laziness. The Fuegians who
are best situated, those of the east coast,
wear guanaco cloaks like the Patagonians, and those of the west coast, have at
least seal-skins ; but among the tribes near Wollaston Island a piece of otter-
skin, hardly as large as a pocket-handkerchief, often forms the only protection
against the rude climate. Fastened across the breast with strings, it is pushed
to one side or another, according as the wind blows. But many, says Darwin,
go without even this minimum of protection. Only the Arctic races, always in-
ventive and sensible, have in this, as in other matters, better adapted themselves to
the demands of their surroundings and their climate ; and their clothing of furs
and bird-skins is in any case among the most rational and practical inventions
in this class. They are, however, the only " natural " races of the temperate or
frigid zones whose clothing is completely adapted to its purpose. The outliers
of them in the North Pacific, such as the inhabitants of King William's Sound
and others, may be recognised at once beside their Indian neighbours by their
Cap made of a palm-spathe, from Brazil.
(Munich Ethnographical Museum. )
clothing.
The Eskimo dress, which covers the whole body, obviously limits the
H
98
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
use of ornament. Hence we never find arm or leg-rings, and only rarely necklaces
of animal's teeth or European beads ; but, on the other hand, buttons, like sleeve-
Bawenda children belonging to a mission school. (From a photograph in the possession of
Dr. Wangemann, Berlin).
Vur and bird skin clothmg of the Amu. (Collection of Baron von Siebold, Vienna
na. )
buttons, of stone or bone, not uncommonly decorate lips and ears. The fact that
they tattoo the body, however, indicates a former residence in a warmer climate.
CLOTHING AND ORNAMENT
99
Footgear is universally worn on the march ; it is generally made of hide, less
often of wood or bark. Curiously enough the method of fastening sandals is
essentially the same all the world over.
Among " natural " races no one goes without ornament ; the contrary to what
we find among civilized people, many of whom, rich and poor alike, avoid any
ornamentation, either of their person or of their clothing. But the universal
Woman of New South Wales. (From a photograph in the possession of
Lieutenant von Biilow, BerUn. )
distribution of ornament seems easier when we consider its by -aims. In the
first place the amulets, which are hardly ever missing, assume the shape of
decorations. Hildebrandt, in his admirable work on the Wakamba, says :
" Amulets are regarded as defensive weapons, and so, in a treatise on ethnography,
deserve a place between weapons and ornaments." But they have more affinity
with the latter than with the former. The fan is used not only to flirt, nor only
even for purposes of coolness, but is an indispensable implement in kindling and
maintaining the charcoal fire. The massive iron arm-rings, with which the negro
bedecks himself, are adapted for both parrying and striking. The Irengas of the
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Upper Nile wear these sharpened to a knife-like edge. In peace they are covered
with a leather sheath, in battle they serve as fighting-rings. Of. a similar kind
are the arm-rings of the neighbouring Jurs, fitted with a pair of spikes. The
smart dagger attached to the upper arm or hung from the neck is half weapon, half
ornament. But we must
reckon among genuinely de-
corative weapons the beau-
tifully-carved clubs of the
Melanesians and negroes,
the batons of command,
the decorated paddles. The
savage warrior can no more
do without ornament than
without his weapon. Are
we to suppose that this
connection has so deep a
psychological basis in the
stimulus to self-esteem and
courage given by external
splendour, that it has
reached even to the heights
of our own military civiliza-
tion ?
Ornament and distinc-
tion again go hand in
hand, though for this brilliancy and costliness are not always necessary. In East
and Central Africa the chiefs wear arm and leg-rings made from the hair of the
Leg ornaments of dogs' teeth, and shell armlet, from Hawaii.
( Vienna Ethnographical Museum. )
Sandal from Unyoro. (After Baker. )
giraffe's tail ; in West Africa, caps from the hide of a particular antelope • while
m Tonga, necklaces of the cachalot or sperm-whale's teeth serve at once for
ornament, distinction, and money— perhaps also for amulets. It is quite intel-
ligible that in the lower grades of civilization, where even great capitalists can
carry their property on their persons, ornament and currency should be inter-
changeable. There is no safer place— none where the distinction conferred by
wealth can be more effectively displayed— than the owner's person. Hence the
frequency with which we find forms of currency which may at the same time serve
2. Stone lip-plugs ; 3, 6, necklaces ; 4, armlet, worn by the Jur tribes ;
of the Shulisi (Vienna Ethnographical Museum.
armlet ; 7 head-dress
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Irenga arm - ring, with sheath. One-
fourth real size. (Vienna Ethnographical
Museum. )
Paddle-shaped clubs, probably from Fiji ; and carved adzes, as carried by chiefs
from the Hervey Islands. ( Munich Ethnographical Museum. ) 2. Dagger for
attachmg to the upper arm, from Lagos. (Christy Collection, London )
for ornament — cowries, dentaliutn, and other shells,
cachalots' teeth, iron and copper rings, coins with
a hole through them. Silver and gold currencies
have grown up in the same way ; but among the
barbarous races of the older world, only the
Americans seem to have appreciated the value of
gold. It was left for Europeans to discover the
great stores of this metal in Australia, California,
and Africa. To this day, in the districts of
Famaka and Fadasi, although almost every
torrent brings down gold, it plays no part in
native ornament or trade.
Lastly, we may reflect how eloquent for a
savage is the silent language of bodily mutilation
and disfigurement. As Th^ophile Gautier says :
" Having no clothes to embroider, they embroider
their skiii.'^." Tattooing serves for a tribal
or famih' mark ; it often indicates victorious
campaigns, or announces a lad's arrival at
manhood, and so also do various mutila-
tions of teeth and artificial scars. Radiating
or parallel lines of scars on cheek or breast,
SLiclt as the Australians produce with no
other apparent ob-
ject save that of
ornament, denote
among the Shillooks,
Tibboos, and other
Africans, the loss of
near kindred. Even
if we cannot see in
circumcision, or the
amputation of a
finger, any attempt
at personal embel-
lishment, in these
and similar practices
it is diflficult to
separate with a hard-
and - fast line the
motives of decora-
tion, distinction, and
fulfilment of a reli-
^^gious or social pre-
cept. Doubtless much
of the ornamentation
which is applied to
the body is a mode
CLOTHING AND ORNAMENT
103
of expressing the primitive artistic impulse upon which special attention is
bestowed ; and thus the tattooings of the New Zealanders, often the work of years
to execute, and that at the cost of much labour and pain, must be reckoned
among the most conspicuous achievements of the artistic sense and dexterity of
that race. The Indians are less distinguished in this respect, while among the
Negroes few devote so much attention to this branch of art as to the arrangement
of their hair — a point in which they certainly surpass all races, being materially
aided in this task by the stiff character of their wigs.
As in all primitive industries, we meet here, as a characteristic phenomenon,
with endless variations on a limited theme. Thus some races take to painting,
some to tattooing, some again to hairdressing. Customs affecting the same region
Modes of hairdi'essing, LovaM. (After Cameron. )
of the body may often indicate relationships. Thus the Batokas knock out their
upper front teeth, causing the lower to project and push out the under lip. Their
neighbours to the eastward, the Manganyas, wear a plug in their upper lip, often
in the lower, and thereby arrive at a similar disfigurement. These luxuriant
developments of the impulse for ornament exhibit the innate artistic sense of a
race often in an astonishing phase, and it is not without interest to trace it from
its crudest beginnings. The articles which savages use for ornament are calculated
to show up against their dark skins. White shells, teeth, and such like, produce
a veiy different effect on that background to what they offer on our pale hands or
in dark cabinets. Hence we find far and wide painting with red and white —
cosmetics were among the objects buried with their dead by the old Egyptians —
dressing of the dark hair with white lime and similar artifices. But the highest
summit of the art has been attained by the Monbuttus, who, in the great variety
of patterns with which they paint their bodies, avoid harsh colours and elementary
stripes and dots. The old people alone leave off adorning themselves and let the
painting wear out ; but it is at this age that the indelible tattooing begins to be
valuable.
104
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Among one and the same race, special decorative themes are generally adhered
to most rigidly, and varied only within narrow limits. We must, however, beware
of the temptation to read too much conscious intention into these manifold
ornaments. In face of the tendency of prehistoric research to treat particular
themes as the signatures, so to say, of the respective races, it is necessary specially
to emphasise the space to be allowed for the play of caprice. It is true that you
can always tell a Tongan club by the
little human figures which stand out
in the mosaic-like carved pattern ; but
here we have to deal with a limited
area of culture, within which a great
persistency of tradition can easily be
aimed at. But would any one take
the cross, which is so natural a motive
in matted work, as it appears on the
beautifully woven shields of the Nyam-
Nyams, for an imitation of the Christian
symbol, or ascribe the crescent on
Polynesian carved work to the influ-
ence of Islam ?
Among the other advantages en-
joyed by the male sex is that of cul-
tivating every kind of adornment to
a greater extent, and devoting more
time to it. In the lowest groups of
savages ornament follows the rule
which is almost universal among the
higher animals ; the male is the more
richly adorned. As is well known,
civilization has pretty well reversed
this relation, and the degree of progress to which a race has attained may to
some extent be measured by the amount of the sacrifice which the men are
prepared to make for the adornment of their women. Otherwise, in the most
civilized communities, men only revert to the custom of ^^---
adorning themselves when they happen to be soldiers or ^"^^7^^
attendants at court. X^^^^amijjj.^^
A practical result of the tendency to luxury in the midst West African :node of filing
ot destitution is the confinement of trade with the " natural " - -
races to a small list of articles, the number of which is
West African body-tattooing. (From a drawing by
P^chuel-Loesche. )
the teeth. (From a draw-
ing by the same. )
almost entirely limited by the purposes of ornament or pastime and sensual
enjoyment. Of trade in the great necessaries of food and clothing there is
hardly any. The objects exchanged, things of value and taste, are primarily
luxuries. Setting aside the partly civilized inhabitants of the coast, and the
European colonies, the important articles of the African trade are beads brass
wire, brass and iron rings, spirits, tobacco. The only articles in a different
category which have attained to any importance are cotton goods and firearms.
Finally we may find a place in this section for those implements of the toilet
wherewith all those works of art are performed upon which primitive man, in this
CLOTHING AND ORNAMENT
105
respect nowise behind his civilized brother, bases his hope of
quering. Let us hear how Schweinfurth describes the dressing
lady : " For pulling out eyelashes and eyebrows they make use
Peculiar to the women of the
Bongos are the curious little
elliptical knives fitted into a
handle at both ends, sharpened
on both edges and decorated
with tooling in many patterns.
These knives the women use
for all their domestic opera
tions, especially for peeling
tubers, slicing cucumbers and
pleasing
case of
of little
and con-
a Bongo
tweezers.
I. r_rt'_! hJ.l combs from Pelew. One half real size. (Kubary Collection, Berlin.'
a. Azandeh or Nyam-Nyam shield. One-tenth real size. (Vienna Ethnographical Museum. )
gourds, and the like. Rings, bells of different kinds, clasps, and buttons, which
are stuck into holes bored in their lips and ear lobes ; with lancet-shaped hairpins,
which seem necessary for parting and dividing their plaits, complete the Bongo
lady's dressing-case." A pair of tweezers for thorns, in a case attached to the
dagger-sheath, forms part of the outfit in almost all parts of Africa. Many carry
a porcupine's bristle or an ivory pin stuck into the hair to keep it smooth.
Combs are well known to the Polynesians, the Arctic races, and the Negroes.
While the civilized European regards cleanliness as the best adornment, even
the Oriental is very far from giving it a high place. Barbarous races practise it
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
when it does not cost too much trouble. In certain directions, however, it can
become a custom ; for example, the negro pays much more attention to keepmg
his teeth clean than the average European. The horror of ordure is often in
truth superstitious, and in that case contributes to keep the neighbourhood of the
huts cleanly. Furneaux was astonished to see latrines among the Maoris. But
what especially promotes cleanliness is the absence or scantiness of clothing.
Dirt as a general rule is principally met with among such races as are compelled
by uncertainty of climate or by custom to keep their bodies always covered. A
daily change will involve rapid wearing out, and for this reason they usually
wear their clothes, as Jenghis Khan prescribed, until they drop off in tatters.
In the most intimate family life, however, a reserve prevails among natural races
which puts their civilized brethren to shame. Among Negroes, Malays, and
Indians, it is a widespread custom that parents and children should not sleep in
the same room.
§ II. HABITATIONS
The first huts — Germs of buildings in wood and stone — Temporary character of most hut architecture — His-
torical value of permanent building — Classification of the natural races according to their style of building
— Shelter as a motive — Pile buildings — Assemblage of habitations — The ethnographic importance of towns
— Various descriptions of towns — Ruins of towns and of civilizations.
The germ of architecture, the first hut, was called into existence by a need which
is primitive and universal. No race lives for a continuance in hollow trees, as
certain of the Tasmanians did in Cook's time, or as the scattered Bechuanas
in the Matabele kingdom. That first hut was no doubt very simple and perish-
able. Architecture in the real sense, that is building made to last, and sub-
sequently decorated edifices, lie nearer to the present time. In the somewhat
vague statement of Laprade, " the birth of architecture, the building of the first
temple, marks the beginning of the historical period," the ethnographer will find
a somewhat narrow notion of a temple in view of the fetish huts of the Central
Africans or the Melanesians ; for him the step beyond the most primitive hut-
building begins much earlier.
The first germ from which, in later times, the inspiring grandeur of architecture
was to unfold itself, lay in the need of shelter. We may mention first the ways
in which this need drives men to rely on Nature. We shall have to speak of the
almost brute-like habit of living in trees found among many races. The use of
pendent branches, which are hastily plaited together and strengthened, as among
the half nomad Bushmen, is nearly akin to it. By cutting down branches or
saplings, sticking them in the ground in a circle, binding together the upper ends,
and roofing this hasty edifice with boughs or skins, is the next step towards
simple hut-building as we find it among Fuegians and Hottentots, Gallas and
Somali. Hence we are brought by a long series of more permanent and
gradually more decorated buildings to the richly ornamented wooden houses of
the Papuas and Malays, or the Pelew Islanders, and the stoneless palaces of the
Monbuttu or Waganda kings. The kindred germ of stone architecture was given
by the habit of dwelling in caves, widely spread in primitive times, and not yet
obsolete. It has an advantage in the durability of the material, counterbalanced
HABIT A TIONS
107
by its lesser adaptability to decoration and ornament. But the advantage out-
weighs the disadvantage, for as soon as an effort is made in the direction of taste,
it was easier to satisfy in the matter of symmetry, which is the fundamental
condition of all architectural beauty.
How little the hard pressure of necessity can do to call forth a greater activity
in satisfying those demands for shelter and food, which are most imperious where
the climate is most harsh and the plant and animal world most scanty, is shown
by the case of the Fuegians who, incredible as it may sound, build not more, but
Caves of the Bushmen. (After Fritsch. )
less, than more favourably situated races. So, too, the Tasmanians must be indi-
cated as having been the most backward of all Australasians in hut-building. In
Australia itself it is surprising to see how it is just in the warmest regions that
hut-building has made most progress ; while it is most wretched in the coldest
parts, where the hut is in fact a protection rather for the fire than for the people.
When we find a similar fact recurring elsewhere, as we do in South America and
South Africa, it establishes with all the force of an experiment that it is not the
schoolmistress need that has most power to compel a progress towards culture,
but that it is only in a tranquil development guaranteed by peace and plenty that
the higher stages, even in the matter of hut and housebuilding, can be reached.
What is required ■ above all is continuity. Nomadism strikes deeper than we
realise into the lives of even agricultural races. The famous art of constructing
dwellings rapidly in bee-hive style, that form of hut used by Hottentots and
Bechuanas, which pre-supposes access to the flexible half-grown stems of the
io8
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
mimosa, only shows that the distinction between the hut and the tent is as yet
not fully appreciated. These edifices disappear as quickly as they spring up.
The most symmetrical and most elegant huts used by Negroes, even though, as
on the Upper Nile, their ground-plan, form of roof, proportions, vary from one
tribe to another, are often hastily run up "of reeds and grass. Nothing but their
temporary character prevents the development of a style of art relying on types
and creating new works on the basis of the old. The destructive force of Nature
comes as additional to the perishable
character of the structure. Everywhere
in tropical latitudes the flimsy dwellings
are subject to speedy decay by reason
of boring beetles, devouring ants,
tropical storms. Nor do the human
inhabitants in any way cleave to the
soil ; on the contrary, they regulate
their mode of life quite in the sense of
Nature, with whom " all things are in
flux," and, instead of restoring their
dwellings, they desert them in order
without trouble to get virgin soil for
cultivation. Junker found in the Bahr-
el-Ghazal country hardly any of the
zeribas which Schweinfurth had so
precisely indicated. After a very few
years what was once a well-ordered
settlement displays at most a few posts
standing in circles, and weeds sprouting
ever afresh from the seeds of what once
were cultivated plants.
There is nothing monumental about
negro architecture, and for that very
reason anything durable is all the more
conspicuously significant in that land
of nomadic building. The granite of
Syene, the black limestone of Persepolis,
which have retained even to our days
Tree-dwellings in South India. (After Jagor. )
the most delicate sculpture and the smoothest polish, are of high historical
significance as trustworthy props and bearers of tradition. They witness to the
truth of a remark of Herder's : " No work of art has died in the history of
mankind." How great an influence has been produced on us by the fact that
those remains, so far removed both in place and time from the modern civilization
of the Nile valley, have been handed down to us uninjured ? But how much
greater was the value of these stony witnesses of the greatness, the deeds, the
religion, the knowledge of their nation, for the people who walked beneath them ?
This hard stone gave as it were a skeleton to tradition, to guard it from
premature collapse. In any case the fact of settlement in stone houses, vying in
firmness with the solid earth, had a significance very different from that of settle-
ment in huts of bamboo and brushwood.
HABITA TIONS
109
In any classification of races according to their method of building, the lowest
grade will be held by nomadic hunting and fishing peoples of the type of the
Fuegians, the Bushmen, the Tasmanians, and many Australians, who inhabit no
huts built on a fixed plan or placed regularly together in villages, but put up
temporary shelters of brushwood and reeds. The tent-dwelling nomads, whether
their tents be of leather like those of the Arabs, or of felt, the Mongol or Sifan
yaourts, so far as plan goes, are not much superior to those above-mentioned ;
but the necessity of guarding their herds has made it a characteristic of them all
Fishing village on the Melcong. (From a photograph
to be arranged in a circle ; and thus has grown up the more regular disposition
inside of a fence or boundary wall, with gates. These again suggest those partly
agricultural, partly nomadic Negroes who build huts of beehive or conical shape,
in the most various stages of perfection. The Negroes of Central Africa who, from
Ugogo all across to the Fan and Dualla countries, build rectangular houses with
several rooms and ornamented doors, form the transition to the Malays of
Madagascar and the Indian Archipelago, and to the, races of the Pacific, whose
richly-ornamented and often large houses, very various in design, offer the most
perfect work found in the way of timber-building among " natural " races. Among
them, however, we find at the same time (as on Easter Island) the beginnings of
masonry in connection with monumental sculpture. The Polar races live in stone
buildings or in huts in which snow takes the place of wood. A zone of stone
houses with several stories passes through India, Arabia, and the Berber regions
of Africa. Contiguous stone houses for hundreds of families occur among the
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Indians of New Mexico and Arizona ; and these bring us to the great monumentaj
buildings of the races who were outside the sphere of Old-world culture, as the
Mexicans, Central Americans, and inhabitants of the South American plateaux.
^iy.^rh^§:i
The so caUed Dwarf s House at Chichen Itza (After Charnaj )
ndependently of all these variations, special kinds of habitation and building
develop themselves from the fundamental idea of shelter. Men were led to
found permanent abodes in the water— not that of the insecure and violent sea but
always only m calm inland lakes or rivers with gentle current— at first obviously
by the wish to protect themselves from beasts of prey and enemies of their own
HABITATIONS
species ; but later, and on higher planes of civilization, with the view of avoiding
the crush and pressure of great assemblages of human beings in a limited space,
as in China with its excessive population, and some parts of Further India. In
the former case the favourite method of surrounding oneself with the protecting
water was to build on piles and platforms ; in the other, large rafts or condemned
barges served for dwellings, whence again pile buildings were evolved, but on a
larger scale than in the former stage, which is marked rather by isolation, than
by crowding. Even in our own days pile-dwellings are numerous ; they are
built by most of the races of the Indian Archipelago, by Melanesians, most of
the Americans of the
North-west, certain
tribes in Africa and
Central and South
America. We can
easily convince our-
selves, if we please,
that the phenomenon
is no less natural than
frequent. Thus our
European pile-dwel-
lings call for no arti-
ficial hypotheses as
to specific pile-build-
ing races, Etruscan
warehouses for trade
goods, or the like.
In later times the
idea of protection
may often have be-
come superfluous and
passed into oblivion,
while the custom remained. Nor were piles always necessary for the cpnstruc-
tion of such dwellings ; many other means were employed to isolate and protect
dwellings and stores. We may recall the old Irish a-annoges, or fenced villages,
or our modern cities built on piles — -Amsterdam, St. Petersburg, Venice., From
the effort to gain the greatest possible security, together with the desire for a
more healthy position, arises the practice in vogue among traders, fettled on
foreign shores to take up their abode on ships or. hulks, which are rnoored
out in rivers or harbours, and contain at the same time their warehouses. In
a smaller measure the same end is served by the post-supported dwellings
on dry land, very common among the Malays, and to be found in Africa,
especially in universal application to storehouses. Livingstone relates that the
Batokas on the Lower Zambesi build their huts on a high framework in the
middle of their gardens, in order to protect themselves from wild beasts,
especially the spotted hyenas. Tree-dwellings, as of the Battaks in Sumatra,
of many Melanesians, of South Indian tribes, come under this head. They are
not really a primitive stage ot dwelling, comparable to the arboreal residences
of the orang-outang, but arise simply from the employment of trees as posts.
^.Us.'-'^jsS^
House in Central Sumatra. (After Veth. )
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
The huts which the trees support often belong to the best -made things of
their kind.
The effects of the craving for protection reach neither far nor deep, when the
essence of it is only isolation ; but when it tends to pack men together it gives
rise to developments which have a wide and mighty bearing. The great cities
which belong to the most marvellous results of civilization stand at the further
end of the effects produced by this tendency to unite men and their dwellings
about a single point. Nothing will enable us so well to recognise the power of
the motive of defence as a glance at the situation of cities. We find fortified
villages crowded together on the tops of mountains or on islands, in the bights
Village on a tongue of land, Lake Tanganyika. (After Cameron.)
of rivers or on tongues of land. Since most centres of habitation have been laid
out at a time when a thin population was beginning to spread, and the danger
of hostile invasions was vividly before their eyes, considerations of defence are
often strongly stamped on their situation. We need only set before our minds
the way in which nearly all the older towns of Greece and Italy stand on the tops
or sides of hills, or remember that nearly all the oldest maritime trading cities
are placed on islands. The tendency to pack together may' pass into an extreme,
as in the case of the Indian dwellings in Colorado, combining the character of
caves and castles, which shelter numbers of persons in the narrowest possible
space, and often are only accessible by steps in the rock or by ladders.
A third cause to be considered is common interests in labour. These of
course increase with the progress of economic division of labour, until they form
the principal cause which decides the situation of an inhabited place. Even at
primitive stages of culture large populations assemble temporarily in spots where
useful things occur in quantity. The Indians of a great part of North America
make pilgrimages to the beds of pipestone ; and we have mentioned the crowds
who go yearly to gather the harvest of the zizania swamps in the north-western
lakes, and the assemblage from all parts of widely-scattered Australian tribes on
HABITATIONS ii3
the Barcoo river for the seed-time of the grain-bearing Marsiliacese. These are
transitory assemblies. But when once the step is taken from a roaming life to a
settled one, places of just this kind will be among the first selected ; and if, when
life has become settled, the population increases and division of labour comes in,
larger habitations will spring up until such spots of the earth as are furnished by-
Nature with any special wealth will, as the highest stages of civilization are
reached, show those unwontedly dense populations — 400 and upwards to the
square mile — which we meet with in the fertile lowlands of the Nile and Ganges,
in the coal and iron districts of Central and Western Europe, or in the goldfields
of Australia and California.
The larger isolated aggregations, on the contrary, come into existence at
definite points, which have become points where the streams of traffic meet or
intersect. The wish for exchange of goods first causes the need for drawing as
near as possible ; traffic creates towns. Everywhere that Nature simplifies or
intensifies traffic great assemblages of men spring up, whether as cities of the
world like London, or market-towns like Nyangwe.
We assume by a kind of instinct a certain connection between cities and
higher culture, and not without reason, since it is in the cities that the highest
flower of our culture declares itself. But the fact that just this development of
cities is so important in China, shows that a certain material culture is independent
of the highest intellectual culture, and gives an impressive lesson of the real
extent to which cities help to serve that life of trade which is less dependent on
culture, nay, even for the most part spring from it. If cities are an organic
product' of national life, they are not always the result of that race's own force
to which they belong. There are towns of international trade, like Singapore, or,
in a lesser degree, the Arab and Swahili stations on the coast of Madagascar ;
or colonial towns, which are closely akin to these, such as Batavia, Zanzibar, or
Mombasa. So mighty is traffic that it bears with it the organisation necessary to
it into the midst of an alien nationality ; so that again whole races which have
become organs of traffic bear the stamp of town life on their brow. Most of all,
indeed, are the desert-dwellers urban races ; for the nature of their place of abode
crowds them together around the springs, and also for defence, and forces them
to more durable building than would be possible with timber and brushwood. The
fact, too, that the oases are widely scattered renders it almost impossible for any
assemblage of habitations to become a centre of traffic in the wide-meshed net of the
desert roads. The first conquerors of an inhabited country, again, are often com-
pelled to live in towns, independently of traffic ; feeling themselves secure only
in close settlements. Then in later times these compulsory towns follow the
natural requirements of trade, and change their situation. Premature foundation
of towns is a symptom of young colonisations ; in North and Central America
we may find ruined cities of quite modern date. In the Chinese region of
colonisation on the frontier of nomads and Chinese, along the upper Hoang-ho,
numerous ruined cities are characteristic of the zone where semi-civilization comes
into contact with semi-savagery.
114 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
§ 12. FAMILY AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS
Head and family— Polygamy— Position of women— Female rule— " Mother-right " — Exogamy— Capture of
women — Parents and children — Morality — Society — Social inequalities — Slavery — Races in bondage —
Distinctive character of property — Extent of the distinction in tropical countries — Property in land —
Examples of various conceptions of private property — Civilizing power of ownership — Poverty and labour
in uncivilized peoples.
Every step towards higher development involves grouping in societies. The
Animal sociale of Linnseus ^ is justified by history, and the most natural form of
society is the Family. It is the only source from which all social and political
life can be developed. If there was any union before the family, it was a herd,
but not a state. The stability which every political organisation capable of
development must needs possess, first comes into existence with the family. With
its development the security for economic advantages, which forms the foundation
of all higher civilization, goes hand in hand.
The fundamental basis of the family is the union of the sexes in a common
home in which the children are brought up. Within the wide limits of this
definition we find marriage universal. Where marriage has been supposed to be
absent, even among the most promiscuous nomads of the forest and desert, its
existence has sooner or later been in every case established. Extraordinary as
has been the spread of polygamy, extending even to the possession of thousands
of wives, as a rule the establishment of the family begins in the union of one man
with one woman. Even elsewhere, one wife remains the first in rank, and her
children have, as a rule, the rights of primogeniture.
Marriage is an endeavour to bridle the strongest natural impulse — one which
advance in civilization has as yet hardly diminished. The restriction is at all
stages and under all circumstances constantly being loosened or broken, and then
reimposed in new forms. Thus an enormous variety of shiftings lies between the
modern forms of monogamy and those survivals of old forms which are referred
to group-marriage. But all are variations of the same problem, how to bind man
and woman to a lasting union.
In every great community we find smaller groups of persons who are dis-
qualified or withheld from marriage. Continence as a religious duty holds no
very important place, though in all parts of the earth we find celibacy regarded as
the highest perfection in military and sacerdotal organisations. But in a far higher
degree is the natural development of the family hindered by the unequal number of
the sexes. The capture of women often connected with slavery, infanticide, war, and
the emigration of the men, bring about an excess of women. From the point of
view of the relations prevailing among ourselves, which are based upon an equality
of numbers in the two sexes, it is hard to conceive a state of things in which the
women are two or three times as many as the men. Yet not only do we find
in Uganda, according to Felkin, seven women to every three men, but in the
half-civilized Paraguay it was reckoned in 1883, after some years of war, that
out of 345,000 inhabitants, two -thirds were women. The consequence is an
excess of the female element in the family, which is the most immediate cause of
' [And of Aristotle long before him. ]
FAMILY AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS 115
polygamy. A superfluity of men, such as civilization brings with it in new
countries peopled by immigrants, is less frequent in the lower grades ; we find
it where there are slaves, and in great centres of commerce. Plurality of husbands,
or polyandry, which was formerly regarded as a specially deep-rooted and ancient
form of the family, has by closer observation been shown to be a development
from altered or abnormal conditions. The small number of women among the
imported labourers in Fiji has caused a true polyandry to grow up, and it has
arisen, under similar conditions, among a slave colony of Dinka slaves in Lega
land. In Tibet, and among the Nairs in India, one man may belong to several
married groups.
Independently of these outgrowths of marriage, in which nevertheless the
woman follows the man — while he is her lord, and the lord of her children and
her earnings, — we find that form of marriage, equally possible with monogamic
or polygamic institutions, in which the man enters the woman's community, and
the children belong to her. Here comes in what in one word is called " Mother-
right." This takes, as the corner stone of the family and of society, the one
certain fact in all relationships — the kinship of children to their mother. When
Herodotus found among the Lycians the custom whereby the children took the
mother's name, and pedigrees were reckoned in the female line, he thought that
that people differed from all others. But we now know that this custom, either
practised consciously and completely, or only as a survival, recurs among many
races. The child may be so closely attached to the kindred of the mother that
in tribal feuds father and son may fight on opposite sides. In all races we find
nations among whom the chiefship descends through the mother. It is tempting to
see in this a survival from an older form of marriage, perhaps a transition to group-
marriage ; since this too looks for the only unquestionable certainty of a child's
origin in his kinship to his mother, and thus equally ignores the father. It is
also certain that where mother-right prevails, so far from any promiscuity of
intercourse arising, women who, owing to their kinship to their own group, may
only mate with- a man belonging to another, stand to him in a much closer relation
than do those with whom he is forbidden ever to mate. The husband enters the
tribe, even the household, of his wife, and a whole series of customs, in many cases
very extraordinary, points to the fact that in spite of the bond of wedlock he is
regarded as a stranger there. Tylor has collected statistics indicating that the
curious practice whereby the husband avoids and refuses to know the wife's parents,
and especially his mother-in-law, appears almost exclusively in the cases where he
enters the wife's family. These onerous ordinances, too, are among the most
strictly enforced. An Australian indignantly repels a suggestion to utter the
name of his mother-in-law. When John Tanner, the naturalized Ojibbeway, was
introduced by an Assiniboine friend into his wigwam, he noticed that two old
people — his friend's father and mother-in-law — veiled their faces while their son-
in-law went by. Each will even avoid the footprints which the other may have
made in the sand. The custom of naming the father after the child, as Moffat
was called " Mary's father," is also found where the husband has migrated into the
family of the wife. It may be explained as an indication that the non-acquaint-
ance continues until such time as the birth of a child has established a connection
between himself and the family. The small attention, too, which the father pays
to the bringing-up of his offspring, is probably due to a like cause ; the children
ii6
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
do not belong to him, but to the mother and her tribe. A survival of the privileged
position of the female side appears also in the etiquette prevailing among the
Kurnai of Australia, by which the husband has to assign certain special portions
of game taken by him to his parents-in-law. We must not, however, look for
traces of mother -right in every insignificant custom, such, for example, as the
provision of the wedding-breakfast by the bride's family.
A Zulu family. (From a photograph in the possession of Dr. Wangemann. )
The transition from this system to that in which the father is the head of the
house, or as it may be called, " father-right," appears to come about spontaneously,
in cases where the father acquires property by his own exertions ; which then
naturally belongs to him. Again, local separation furnishes a point of origin for
the extension of the new family. Powell relates that an Indian tribe in which
mother-right prevailed, being compelled in a time of dearth to migrate with its
women, became in its new situation the originator of a tribe with father-right.
In view of the tendency to exempt from the mother's right of bequest land which
has been cleared by the father with or without the aid of the children, it must
happen that, for example, settlements in a new country must be at the disposal
of the father ; and besides this, movable property shows the sarne tendency.
Tending the herds especially demands hard labour, and as a natural consequence
FAMILY AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS "7
the patriarchal system has reached its highest development among pastoral races ;
so that the introduction of cattle-breeding into the industrial life of mankind
may well have played an important part in the extension of this system.
Closely connected with marriage under the influence of mother-right is the
remarkable custom, which has lasted to our own time, known as " exogamy."
Many tribes forbid their young men to take a wife from among their own body,
thus compelling them to marry one of another tribe. This custom assumes so
rigid a legal form that many tribes in Africa, Australia, Melanesia, America, have
their regular " wife -tribes " out of which they always choose their partners.
Exogamy even reaches so high as to the Brahmins of India, and we find it as
a superstition among the Chinese ; it penetrates so deeply that the very language
of a race may be divisible according to male and female descent. Thus L. Adam
reports of the Carib language that it is a mixed speech, that of the men being
deducible from the Galibi or true Carib, that of the women from the Arawak.
Its twofold nature consists in the use by men or women of certain forms and words
only when speaking to persons of their own sex ; while on the neutral ground the
influence of the women's Arawak speech predominates. The division takes a local
shape where a village is divided into two exogamous halves, or where two exogamous
villages or tribes dwell side by side, which, as they multiply, similarly form a
dual society. Over large districts, even in the Malay Archipelago, where foreign
influences have made themselves much felt, the tribal organisation comes under
this law, the rigour of which extends even beyond marriage, for all intercourse
within the prohibited limits is treated as incestuous and punished with death.
This holds among the Dieyerie of Australia. The often -quoted exogamous
group-marriage of the Mount Gambler tribe, where all intercourse within the
two half- tribes, Krokis and Kumites, is strictly forbidden, but allowed so
freely between them that the two groups may almost be said to be married to
each other, appears to us to be a mere procreative hugger-mugger. Remarkable
traces of a state of things which has either vaijished or is preserved only in
fragments, are visible in the kinship-systems of the most various races. These all
occur under monogamic or polygamic forms, but give clear evidence of the
previous existence of other forms of marriage ; and that not as rare curiosities,
but widely extended. Morgan first recognised in the Iroquois a people who by
that time had reached the mark of marriage by couples, but showed in their
names for the degrees of relationship the traces of an earlier system. The
Iroquois at that time called his brothers' children " son " or " daughter," while they
called him " father '' ; but his sisters' children were to him " nephew " and " niece,"
and he " uncle " to them. This observation led Morgan to establish the rule that
the family proceeds from a lower to a higher form in proportion as society
develops to a higher stage ; but the system of kinship only registers progress
after long intervals, and only undergoes fundamental changes when the idea of
the family has fundamentally altered. Thus it seemed possible to find in the
names traces of an older mode of reckoning kinship of which it might be that
nothing else had actually survived. It has been suggested that the kin-names
of Hawaii may be referred to a system like that of the Iroquois, but even wider
in its employment of the names for child, brother, and sister ; since there all
children of brothers and sisters are spoken of as the common children of these,
and call each other " brother " and " sister." But we are in no way justified in
ii8 THE HISTORY OF 2rANKIND
seeing in this a survival of what Morgan, and after him — not without an
ulterior purpose — Marx, Engels, and the rest, have called the "consanguine family,"
— that is, a family in which the only bar to intercourse was as between relatives
belonging to different generations — grandparent, parent, child, etc. The notion
of incest is bound up with the very lowest forms of marriage of which we have
any knowledge, and the bar has been fixed far further back than in our conception
of marriage. Still less does the so-called Punalua family — in which brothers and
sisters, and, as a probable further consequence, their children, were excluded from
marriage — result from this Iroquois kinship -system. In Hawaii this form of
marriage existed even in the present century, whereby sisters were the common
wives of several husbands (^Punalua), or brothers the common husbands of several
wives. The ancient Britons may well have had a similar form of marriage ; but
on this subject we have no information to carry us farther. All attempts to
prove the existence of absolute promiscuity may be regarded as unsuccessful ;
Bachofen's researches take us back to group-marriage at farthest. The traces
of a community of women, such as surrender taking the form of a religious rite ;
that curious feast held by the Congo natives at the conclusion of the three
days' mourning for the dead, at which the widow yields herself to the mourners,
and many similar customs, can indeed be explained as survivals from such a state
of things ; but it seems more natural to regard them as relapses from the
monopoly of women in single or polygamous marriages which is constantly being
attempted, but always meets with opposition, especially in regions where the
sexual instinct is less restrained. Similar relapses, though in other forms and
more concealed from view, are not unknown even under our own code of morals.
Questions concerning property and society will make us recur to this subject.
Primogeniture is no more universal than the tracing of descent in the male
line. No doubt we find it strongly marked among most races, even to the point of
the parents, when old, yielding obedience to the eldest son, while the brothers have
to work for him like slaves ; but we also find privileges conceded to the youngest,
as in the custom of " borough-English," still not wholly extinct in this country.
In this we may see a regard for the interests of the mother and the family, who
will gain most by the supremacy of the son who is likely to remain longest under
their tutelage. " Patria potestas " is, if only as a case of. the right of the strongest,
very considerable wherever the family tie is not extremely lax. In Africa
children allow their fathers to sell them without a murmur. On the other hand,
among Negroes the love of parents for children is developed in a beautiful degree,
and these races, considered low in the scale, often enjoy a most closely-welded
and charming family life under the influence of paternal authority and children's
affection.
The modes of contracting marriage offer many traces, persisting to the present
day, of a former state of things. A present given in many cases by the founder
of a new household to his father-in-law, stamps the contract as a form of purchase,
while not excluding the traces of capture. The purchase of a wife is often
concluded while she is still a child, nay, occasionally, while she is still unborn.
It happens not uncommonly that the lady's inclinations are also considered but
as a rule, parental dispositions are absolute. The wooer usually expresses his
wishes by the presentation of a gift to the parents of the girl he has chosen • and
its acceptance or rejection is taken as their decision. Intermediary suitors are
FAMILY. AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS 119
often employed. Marriages " on approval " are also frequently found ; in cases
where things turn out satisfactorily, the course is, first the offering of presents to
the girl, then the building and furnishing of the hut, then the gift to the bride's
parents. The nuptials are then performed either by priests, or by the parents, or
the grandmothers of the young people ; or, in their absence, by any older relations.
The ceremony includes symbols of the bride's loss of her freedom, of her regret at
leaving her parental home, of the expected joy of motherhood, and so forth ; but
consists mainly of merriment. In many cases the religious element does not
enter, but where it does appear, it is in the form of an invocation of the souls of
ancestors, whose abiding interest in the family concerns is everywhere presumed.
Blood-relationship is among most races regarded as a bar to marriage ; yet the heir
often takes over his father's wives. Divorce is in these cases wont to be as easily
concluded as marriage, the chief difficulty being the recovery of the purchase-
money. Wherever polygamy is most widely extended, the marriage relation is
most lax ; until we meet with conditions such as the most advanced corruption of
civilization does not attain to. It has been said, not unjustly, of the Polynesians,
that the great laxity of their family-ties has played an important part in their
migration. What Cook said of the father of a New Zealand boy who was about
to leave him without hope of return, is true of many : " He would have parted
with more emotion from his dog." The slave-trade again has increased the ease
with which the bond between husband and wife, parent and child, has so often
been loosed ; while adoption rends the natural dependence in favour of an
unnatural tyrannical law.
The capture of women is no longer practised as the sole means of acquiring
wives and founding families ; though in the wars of savage races often only the
younger women are spared, and these are taken as booty, like Andromache, to
the homes of the victors. But stories like that of the Rape of the Sabines, or of
the daughters of Shiloh by the Benjamites, declare plainly that a different state
of things once existed ; and a whole series of curious customs can only be ex-
plained by a traditional objection to seeing daughters, sisters, women of the tribe,
carried off. So, too, when we find at the present day, whether among Arabs,
South Slaves, or others, the bride making a show of yielding to compulsion,
against her own desire, or the marriage procession embellished by a fight between
the bride's people and those of the 'bridegroom, culminating in the carrying off of
the bride, we have obvious traces of what was once conducted in a different
spirit. The less reality there is in the custom, the more capriciously does the
symbolism work. In a district of East Melanesia the boys of the village await
the bride's relations and shoot harmlessly at them with arrows. Or the sham
fight between the bride's and bridegroom's people does not take place till after
the wedding feast. Not only has the bridegroom to buy his bride, but she must
pay for permission to go in peace. To the same class perhaps belongs the
custom prevalent in the Loyalty Islands, whereby the newly-married pair may
not see each other in public, nor dwell in the same house, but have to meet
secretly.
Contrary to the notion that a comparison of the various forms of marriage'
will reveal a great development, resembling as it were a pedigree, showing a pro-
gressive contraction of the area within which intercourse was permitted, from its
original identity with the whole tribe, by the exclusion of first nearer, then more
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
distant kindred, until monogamy at last was reached ; we see in all the forms
various attempts to do justice to the hardest of all social problems, one of
which, indeed, no perfect solution is practically possible. The breeder's motive
for selection, viz. the repression of the weakening effects of in-and-in breeding,
by encouraging an invigorating cross-breeding, has unduly influenced this theory
of development ; races which did not breed cattle must have been far from
recognising anything of the kind. We should rather say that we are here in
presence of one of those cases of a consistent and refined development of a
limited group of ideas, of which we find so many examples in the ethnology of
the natural races. Such development as we can perceive with undoubted clear-
ness in marriage is in the growth of sentiment with the growing cultivation of
the individual, and the closer union resulting from the multiplication of points of
contact between the sexes, which comes with increasing civilization.
In primitive society woman holds a position quite as full of anomalies as her
position among the most highly-civilized races, the only difference being that in
the former case injustice and ill-treatment appear with less disguise as the natural
consequences of her physically weaker powers. Polygamy alone hardly explains
her lower position. Even where monogamy is the general rule, as is the case,
though not without exceptions, and still less as an ordinance, among Negroes,
Malays, Indians, and the northern races, it is usual for the woman to live in a
separate part of the house, seldom to eat out of the same dish as the men, and
in any case, only after they have finished. Higher civilization, while it has
improved woman's position by softening the man's rude instincts, and especially
his violence and injustice, has at the same time, by depriving her of the dignity
of labour, removed the basis of a possible firmer position in society. Has it not,
indeed, by making such a division of labour as to give the more limited, easier,
and less honourable forms of it to the woman, and exclude her from warfare,
public or private, and sport, put her in an even less favourable position than
Nature intended ? If we descend the stages of civilization we shall find, as we
come to the lower, that woman is physically and intellectually more on a par
with man. Might not the question of power, or rather strength, once have stood
somewhat differently ? At the stages of civilization with which we are here
concerned, it was not found difificult to allot a position of authority to the woman.
We may recall the influence of the priestesses' among the Malays, the frequency
with which female sovereigns are found in Africa and America, the female troops
of Dahomey, who are stronger than the men and handier with their weapons.
Despots have often, like the present king of Siam, formed a bodyguard of women,
believing the fidelity of female slaves to be more trustworthy.
Nature has no doubt implanted elements of weakness in the physical organisa-
tion of women, which perhaps civilization only tends to develop further ; but
there can be no question that the fact of her bearing and bringing up the children
is a great source of strength which can never fail her. If the children belong to
the mother, or if, according to the custom of exogamy, the husband enters the
wife's family, the greater influence, based upon present possession and the future
hope of the stock, lies on the female side. That does not prevent the hardships
of life weighing upon her more than upon the stronger man ; but even so it must
often happen that, as Arthur Wright says of the Seneca Iroquois, the women
are a great power in the clans and elsewhere. On occasions, he adds, they can
FAMILY AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS
even depose a chief, and reduce him to a mere ordinary brave. The manifold
forms of female rule, or the double chieftainship, male or female, such as we find
in Lunda, and traces of it in Unyoro, point to a higher position of woman at one
time.
In regard to sexual morality, comparative observation shows that in all
grades of civilization very different conceptions of it obtain, but that these are
by no means most relaxed among the poorest and most wretched of natural races ;
rather in places where there is constant intercourse with the lower classes of
civilized nations. Apart from this, however, we find great differences, such as are
hardly to be explained by primitive conditions, but are rather bound up with the
very various circumstances of national life. In some regions the utmost freedom
is allowed between unmarried persons, to the point of its being held creditable to
a girl to bear children to her lovers ; elsewhere wives are surrendered, freely or
for payment, to guests ; while some tribes kill a girl who has borne a child out
of wedlock. There is no sharper contrast than the rigid jealousy wherewith the
Masai guard the purity of their maidens, who go clothed in skins, and the laxity
which their easy-going neighbours, the Wakamba, display in regard to their girls,
who stroll about without a rag on ; but the former are a proud race with strict
laws and aristocratic organisation ; the latter a complaisant, lazy, scattered
subject-race. We often meet with the same contrast ; a strong nation keeps its
laws on this subject at as high a level as on others, a weak one tends to license.
On the other hand, the Masai attach no importance to chastity in married women.
The fact is that the influence of moral ideas upon races at this stage is very
small, and that such morality as there is exists less in compliance with any
moral feeling, than as an obstacle to the infringement of private rights. Adultery
is universally regarded as an attack upon rights acquired by the purchase of the
wife ; and thus the action of the man who makes a temporary surrender of his
wife to a guest, does not necessarily shock morality. It remains to inquire how
the growth of this custom bears upon the position of women in a community with
" mother-right." No doubt the influence of the women would be thrown against
it, as to this influence is due the disfavour with which public opinion among the
North American Indians views facility of divorce. In general the less civilized
societies allow freer play to the sexual instinct than do the higher ; and accord-
ingly among them we find less violence done to ideas of law or morality. As
the bonds which unite man and wife are drawn closer a change takes place. It
is at this point that professional harlotry appears, as a means of averting forms
of profligacy which might endanger family ties. In the form in which we find
it among the Nyam-Nyams, it may no doubt be regarded as an indication of
higher social development ; but at the same time it lowers that society materially
in moral worth. Indeed, in disregard of moral obligation, the most cultivated
society is on a level with the natural races. The conditions which lead to
national decay often present a striking parallel. Society in Tahiti, as Cook and
Forster found it, was thoroughly corrupt and on the high road to decay ; it was
doomed to perish neither more nor less than that of Rome under Heliogabalus,
or that of Paris before the Revolution. Conversely the condition of the Zulu
nation under Dingaan and Chaka was one of rude and youthful health. Certain
features of family life which we are apt to consider as restricted to the richer
growth of the affections in civilized life may be specially noticed. The mourning
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
of a widow for her husband, or of parents for children, is expressed with a vehe-
mence which must partly suggest superstitious ideas, but in any case is a great
act of sacrifice on the part of the living for the sake of the dead. We may recall
how Australian women carry about the corpse, or some bones, of their dead
children on all their marches, or how Melanesian women wear the mummied
skull of their departed husbands ; not to mention the widespread custom under
which widows and slaves follow their husband, or lord to the grave.
Motherly love is so natural a sentiment that the modes of expressing it need
no authentication ; but we often come across instances of tenderness on the
father's part towards his offspring. No doubt there are many cases of cruelty,
but these are exceptions. All who have gone deeply into the question agree in
praising the peaceful and kindly way in which those of one household live
together among uncorrupted natural races, doubly striking by contrast with
the dark practices and disregard of human life with which it often co- exists.
Solomon's maxim that he who loves his child chastens him betimes, finds no
observance among natural races ; rather is it the children who tyrannise over the
adult. But even they seldom quarrel or fight among themselves. Nansen has
depicted the great good-nature which prevails among the Eskimos, and is inclined
to refer the repose and peacefulness of family life mainly to the intimate associa-
tion customary between mother and children. The educational effect of this
closely-knit fellowship upon its members has often been under-estimated. But
among many natural races life moves more securely in fixed lines than it does
among the most highly-cultured. The respect for elders, the obedience to those
in authority, the willing subordination, the apathetic calm, which preserves its
supremacy by force not of intellect but of habit, in face of the most unexpected
occurrences, often impress Europeans. The cool self-contained Redskin of the
Indian tales is a product of this closely-knitted society.
The word Family had, even in its original Latin use, the meaning of house-
hold, the slaves being included in it ; and thus signified a society. It has a yet
wider import among races in very various stages of civilization. By the compre-
hension of kinsfolk of several generations and inclusion of strangers in the position
of slaves, it broadens out into an important element of society. Among the
Slavonic peoples we find house-comradeship, Zadruga or Bradstro, " brother-
hood," embracing several generations of descendants from one progenitor, and'
their wives, in a community of goods and labour under one head, who need not
always be the eldest. Traces of the same appear among the old Germans and
the Celts ; we find them in India, in the Caucasus, among the Kabyles, and many
other races of Africa and Oceania. Where we know nothing of their internal
organisation, the great house with its numerous apartments for single groups —
particularly the "long-house" (see woodcut on p. 1 27) indicates their existence. Here
then we are in sight of the family and of society. The family holds its members
together with a bond closer than that of marriage, and forms with them an
organisation which is one of the great and permanent elements of society. This
effort is most conspicuous in the societies where mother-right and exogamy
obtain ; in which the sharp division on the basis of blood-relationship divides the
whole stock into two halves, which are at once family and society. They divide
the property, individual property being unknown ; and this, apart from kinship
holds the society together. For political purposes some family stocks unite in
FAMILY AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS 123
groups, which may be compared with the old Greek Phratrise ; several of such
groups form the highest political unit, which we call simply the tribe.
Slavery and serfdom soon bring about a further gradation. The oldest
occasion for slavery was the compulsory entry into the society of foreigners, who in
most cases would be prisoners of war. The custom of enslaving such prisoners when
the captors do not wish to kill them is to this day very widespread, and indeed
has been abandoned only by the most highly civilized nations. The Masai in East
Africa, a shepherd tribe, who subsist upon herds of a fixed size, and have neither
labour nor provisions to spare for slaves, kill their prisoners ; their neighbours,
the agricultural and trading Wakamba, being able to find a use for slaves, do not
kill them ; while the Wanyamwesi, a third people of that region, having, through
their close connection with the Arabs of the coast, a good market for slaves, wage
wars on purpose to acquire them. Here are three situations of typical significance.
The impulse to level downwards which exists in primitive societies shows nowhere
more strongly than in the position of relative freedom which the slaves enjoy. If
there is no work for male slaves, females are always wanted, and their issue forms
a yet lower social grade. Slaves are also bought for human sacrifices, and in
Central Africa the death of a chief creates a brisk demand. Wherever the status
of slave is recognised, as it is among all pagan nations, it offers a welcome means
of expiation ; the last sacrifice which the creditor can claim from his debtor, the
plaintiff from the defendant, is the surrender of personal freedom. A curious
exception is found among the Ewe people, where the insolvent debtor incurs the
penalty of death. But between the positions of slavery for debt and freedom as
enjoyed by the masters, lies the dependent position of those whom poverty has
reduced to the verge of slavery though nominally free. To these applies the
maxim that the final abolition of slavery is owing to the creation, by means of
labour, of movable value, that is, capital, and thus that capital and freedom are
sisters.
There is a great distinction between slavery as a national institution and as
a means of preparing goods for trade. If Arabs and other slave-holders treat
their slaves well, the reason is to be found in the participation of both slave and
master in the general indolence. So long as no great differences of rank from
the point of view of culture exist, not much demand will be made upon the slave's
labour ; but as society progresses and wants increase his lot becomes harder, and
it is in no w.ay ameliorated by humanising progress generally. The interval
which separates master and slave increases in proportion to the desire of gain ; so
that, as Livingstone says, no improvement in the slave's position can be expected,
even if the slave-holder does not return to or remain in barbarism. If we look
at Africa, we see that among all merchandise slaves and women stand in the closest
relation to the requirements of the negro. Their sphere is a large one ; for all
that does not concern trade, fighting, or hunting, is the business of the women and
slaves. These form the favourite merchandise, the most important standard of
property, the best investment for capital. Above all they are the articles easiest
to provide in exchange for goods in request — at one time, indeed, the only medium
of exchange beside ivory that Africa possessed.
When men are a form of capital, their tendency" is, like other capital, to accumu-
late ; for the desire of owning slaves is just as insatiable as the craving for property
and wealth in any other form. Therein lies the greatest danger of this institution.
124 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Excessive slavery is one of the causes which destroy states ; it was so in Rome
of old, it is so in Africa and parts of America to-day. It splits up the nation, of
which an ever-increasing proportion falls into slavery ; it brings on war, devasta-
tion, tyranny, human sacrifices, cannibalism. It has been alleged as an advantage
possessed by the powerful conquering nation of the Fans in West Africa, that they
keep no slaves to weaken their warlike force. The last result is the depopulating
and enfeebling of wide areas. If we may assume, with Father Bauer, that before
the conclusion of Sir Bartle Frere's treaty in 1873, 65,000 slaves were annually
imported into Zanzibar, this means, allowing for those who escaped or were left
behind on the way, that some 100,000 were torn from their homes in the same
period.
Nearly allied to slaves are those despised and degraded portions of the popula-
tion, who live as a sharply-separated and deep-lying stratum, under a conquering race.
Almost every race of Asia or Africa which has made any progress towards higher
development embraces some such, not always differing ethnologically. For that
very reason, however, the social difference is all the more strictly maintained, and
often enough leads to further divisions among the lower classes themselves. Thus
in some parts of Southern Arabia four, in others two, classes of Pariahs are dis-
tinguished ; some of them degraded by birth, others through following unclean
trades. The caste divisions of India show the same distinctions, for in the lowest
castes we equally find some degraded by birth, some by occupation. Both causes
meet in our gipsies, in the Yetas of Japan, and others ; and it is at once interesting
and melancholy to see how in North America numerous remains of the Indian
population have sunk to a like level. Here the cause of the degradation was the
invasion by a foreign race. A particular form of this inequality is the subjection
of whole races to a conquering plundering horde. In some parts of the Sahara
the Arabs and Tibboos look upon certain oases and their inhabitants as their
private property. They turn up at harvest time to take their tribute, that is to
plunder and rob ; and in the interval leave their subjects to misery and the task
of planting for their benefit. In course of time an assimilation may result from
this gradation, though the family regarded as a kin-group seeks to maintain an
attitude of reserve and opposition to this, by objection to misalliances. But it
may also, by the introduction of economical causes, and local dispersion, lead to
a sharp and permanent separation, till we find the hunters of the Central African
forests, the so-called Pygmies, appearing as a peculiar social race beside their
agricultural masters and protectors.
The tribal membership becomes connected with the realm of the unseen by
means of special stock-symbols— known as Totems among the American Indians,
Atuas among the Polynesians — which have been promoted to the position of tutelary
spirits. Among the Samoan stocks we find Atuas using the shovel, Aanas the
lance, Latuamasangas the whisk, Mononos the fishing-net, as imparted by the god
Pili. More especially are animals, preferably reptiles, fish, and birds sacred to
the gods ; and each member of a stock bears the emblem tattooed on his person
not only with a view to his recognition and classification, but as an amulet and
an object of reverence. Among Indians and Australians we also find the influence
of the totems in proper names.' G. Forster called attention long ago to the fact
that among the Polynesians personal names are often taken from animals and
compared this with a similar custom among the North American Indians A
FAMILY AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS 125
Tahitian chief was called Otu, the heron ; a Marquesan, Honu, the tortoise.
These are almost certainly clan-names, such as we find also among African tribes,
Bechuanas, Ashantees, etc. The attitude adopted towards the stock-symbol is
very various ; sometimes it is an object of dread, sometimes of honour and
protection. Among some stocks it is a capital offence to injure the original of
the symbol ; while in Aurora (Banks Island) a member of the Veve, whose cog-
nisance is the cuttle-fish, so far from objecting to eat it, thinks the capture of
it particularly lucky. Similar totem-stocks in different tribes lend each other
mutual assistance, and thus the system affords a ground for close alliances between
distant tribes.
Secret societies also ramify through the community, creating a division into
adepts and uninitiated. They have a natural tendency to appear in communities
which lack any great public motive for a hierarchy of ranks. They draw artificial
boundaries, wear masks of which they alone understand the meaning, surround
themselves with religious forms, take control of important functions, such as the
initiation of young persons arriving at maturity, or the exaction of penalties for
law-breaking, reminding us (and in this latter respect both in their nature and
their operations) of the German Vehmegericht. Part of the duty of these secret
societies and other bodies consists in the maintenance of traditions. If there is
no other organisation for this purpose, their members are systematically instructed
in the subject.
No race is actually communistic ; but there is so much communism in the
institutions of savage races, that it has often appeared more important to combat
this than to introduce Christianity. Missionaries have, no doubt, been too ready
to find in communism, which does not require a man to put all his strength into
his work, the ground of various undesirable characteristics, as in Samoa of the
tendency to intrigue which enlivens the native indolence. We shall come across
institutions which are deliberately designed to prevent the undue amassing of
capital. In Polynesia the effect of these has been decidedly good in rendering
difficult the admission, with mischievous rapidity, of European goods. Property
shows in its relations a natural analogy with family no less than with social
institutions ; thus as we find remains of group-marriage beside monogamy, so we
find traces of common ownership side by side with individual ownership. When a
member of a family community, which unites its forces to till the common land
and shares the produce, brings a piece of ground under cultivation, this becomes
his own private property with right of bequest. A boat is common property,
tackle or fish-hooks personal and private. Especially among nomad, and there-
fore thinly-scattered, races the notion of private property is unequally developed
in different directions. The first thing that makes a European, among the
pastoral races of Africa or the hunting tribes of North America, feel that he
has left the constraints of civilization behind him, is the way in which rights of
property are in some cases neglected. They stick to their herds to the point of
miserliness, but insist upon property in land only so far as they want it for
pasture. Many peoples respect property in locked chests, but hold what is lying
about to be as free as air. If my team is tired, I unyoke where I will ; I let
my cattle graze wherever I think I have found grass for them. I cook my meal
with the nearest wood, asking no man's leave ; and no man looks upon it as an
infringement of his rights, or an injury to his property. If I like the place where
126 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
I have halted, or find anything to attract me, such as a copious spring, good
pasture-land, or a bit of fertile garden-ground, I can stay there as long as I
please, and build myself as big a house as I like. But in any case, if I settle in
a particular spot, I must allow others to find the spring copious and the pasturage
abundant, and to come there with their herds ; and I must come to an under-
standing with them about the use of it. The Hereros of Damaraland, according
to Buttner, have a way, in spite of their communism, of making an unpopular
newcomer dislike his quarters by the simple artifice of driving all their flocks and
herds into the neighbourhood of his residence. As soon as he has had enough
of the damage and devastation which is thus caused, he clears out. The exact
contrary is seen in the thickly-peopled region of the Upper Nile, where lakes and
ponds, which yield fish and lotus-seeds (almost the sole sustenance of these fishing-
people) in profusion, are respected as valuable property, just as are cornfields and
vineyards in Europe. The Indian buffalo-hunters of the prairies confine them-
selves to settled natural boundaries. To the present day the Bechuanas pay toll
to the Bushmen on the game which they take, under the plea that the latter
were the original owners of the hunting-grounds. The. Hereros, of whose half-
developed proprietary instinct we have just given an example, carefully avoid any
formal surrender of their property to strangers ; a full renunciation of the use of
their land is inconceivable to them. From the idea of tribal possession arises the
notion common in Africa that the tribal chief is the sole owner of the soil, and
accordingly the members of the tribe pay such a tax to him for the use of it as
may be agreed upon.
The Spaniards of the sixteenth century tell us that no Indian had any free
disposal of land, but only with the assent of his tribe. In Oceania the transition
from one form of ownership to the other seems to be taking place under our eyes,
and, just as happened with the advance of white settlers on Indian soil, uppn the
basis of labour done in clearing and cultivation. Hunting leads to tribal owner-
ship only ; and even the Australians and Eskimo, distributed in the proportion of
one to 2000 square miles or so, lay claim to certain tracts of land on behalf of the
family or tribe, and regard as an enemy any one who enters or uses these terri-
tories without leave. The thinness of population usually found when we come down
to the lower stages, will for the most part allow of abundant elbow-room ; but it
is obvious that a family subsisting by the chase wants more soil than one of agricul-
turists, and equally so that pastoral nomads demand broader areas than settled
cattle-breeders. These contrasts have prevailed at all times and in all countries ;
and when we come to the races of the steppe, we shall see that important historical
consequences follow upon this demand for land. The hereditary dislike of the
Indians towards the partitioning of their lands into individual properties, as well
as towards the sale of superfluous territory, has contributed much to the difficulties
of their position in regard to the white man.
The effect of labour in creating property does not stop with the fencing-in of
a forest clearing. According as labour attaches itself to the soil, or only passes
lightly over it, its results differ fundamentally. Hunting, fishing, nomad pastoral
life, create for the most part a mere transitory possession, which takes no pains to
store or spare the source whence it draws. In agriculture, on the contrary, there
is a constant strengthening and deepening, which acts not least powerfully through
the other branches of human activity which it keeps steadily going. All higher
FAMILY AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS
127
development of human powers rests upon this steady labour and the storage of
its fruits.
It is just in the lowest stages of civilization that the amassing of wealth is a
matter of the greatest importance, for without wealth there is no leisure, and
without leisure no ennobling of the form of life, no intellectual progress. It is
not till production materially and permanently outstrips consumption that there
can be any superabundance of property. This, according to the laws of political
economy, tends to increase, and allow an intelligent class to come into existence.
An absolutely poor race develops no culture. But under the protection of civilization
Interior of a house in Korido, New Guinea. (After Raffray. )
more men will be born and grow up than the soil affords room for. The faster
this disproportion increases, the greater will be the gap between Haves and
Havenots, rich and poor. In hot countries, where man requires less nourishment,
and production is at the same time easier than in cold regions, the population
will multiply more quickly. Men become many, work scarce, therefore wages
will be abnormally small, life poverty-stricken, misery great. In the cooler zones
men want stronger food, while the land produces less of it, and thus maintains
fewer persons ; the individual has to work harder, with the result that more is
done and wages are higher. The relations between harder labour and higher
wages is calculated to narrow the distinction between labourers and owners ; while,
on the contrary, the indolence of the dweller in the tropics increases this distinction,
when it is once established, to an enormous degree. In European countries we
see advantages of soil and climate fully compensated by the excellent disposition
of men who have to work, whose activity guarantees the progress of civilization
more securely than natural wealth could do. Natural forces, with all their
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
grandeur, are essentially limited and stationary ; the intellectual force of man is
inexhaustible. The best soil is worked out at last, but into the place of an
exhausted generation of mankind there is always a new one ready to step, full
of youthful vigour. Resting on this basis, civilization is always most capable of
development among the dwellers in the temperate zones. But this force had to
be developed in slow, steady labour ; and the development of civilization is before
all things a progressive training of every man to work.
Undoubtedly every man must labour in order to live ; but if he likes to live
in misery, he need not labour much. The total sum of labour performed by the
savage is often not less than that performed by the civilized man ; but he does it
by fits and starts as the humour takes him, and not in a regular fashion. The life
of the Bushman is an alternation of hunting expeditions, on which he often
pursues the herds of wild animals for days together with extreme toil, and
of gorging on the game he has taken, ending in slothful repletion, until hunger
Ashantee drinking cups of human slcuUs. (British Museum. )
forces him to new exertions. Regular work at high pressure is what the savage
abhors ; hence comes that trait of obstinate apathy in his countenance which
is an infallible means of distinguishing the spurious from the genuine Indian.
For the same reason he hates to learn a handicraft. The Negro's passion for
trade, well illustrated by the fact that in Sierra Leone almost every fifth person
is a shopkeeper, springs to a great extent from this distaste.
Cannibalism, which is found in every quarter of the earth, and was once more
widely spread than now — for even Europe contains prehistoric remains and
traditions pointing to its prevalence — is not peculiar to the lowest stages of civiliza-
tion, nor yet a phenomenon due to a single cause. Peoples like the Monbuttus,
the Battaks, the Maoris are among the highest of the races to which they belong.
But they are well off for men, and have not risen high enough to make a good
use of their superfluous population by increasing their economic production.
Human life is held cheap among them. Now cannibalism presumes men for
eating ; and therefore we find it either where the population is dense, or where
a people has the power to get plenty of slaves. Among the Bangalas there are
more slaves than are wanted for the labour, so that meat is abundant. Another
cause is the sharp separation between one race and another, which causes
strangers to be regarded as enemies, and allows any use to be made of them,
even that of supplying nourishment. Within an exclusive family-stock or in
a group consisting of such stocks, cannibalism would have seemed as inconceivable
THE STATE
129
as incest ; so that if the practice has in recent years infected islands of the
Solomon group, it is a fact of the same class as the relaxation of social order
which has spread over the same region from a similar direction. Since the
introducers of both innovations are the Polynesians, we can hardly doubt that
there is a deep-lying connection between them ; and similarly we may account
for the uneven, disconnected spread of cannibalism, which was found to exist
even before the rapidly increased opposition to it caused by Christian and
Mussulman influence. Further motives are revenge, which delights to eat its foe ;
and envy, which hopes by so doing to acquire his more desirable characteristics.
To people whose loose style of building makes
prisons untrustworthy, the idea of imprisonment
for life does not readily occur, so that capital
punishment flourishes. Besides these reasons,
cannibalism is closely involved in the whole net-
work of cannibal customs ; embracing first human
sacrifice, then the employment of portions of the
human frame in the ritual of consecrations and
witchcraft, and lastly the preservation and use of
human remains, skulls for drinking-cups, bones for
daggers, teeth for necklaces. This playing with
human flesh and bones would be the first step to
overcoming a natural disgust. When a chief in
the Society Islands swallowed a human eye on a
festive occasion, cannibalism was not entirely at
an end in those regions. We cannot always safely
infer cannibalism from the names of races, as these
were frequently given by way of insult. The indulgence in the practice from
necessity, which is not unknown among Europeans, is quite intelligible among
races which, like many Australian and Arctic tribes, suffer every year or two,
or continuously, from famine ; and need only be noticed as contributing to its
maintenance and extension. For where it has once got a footing, its attraction
increases, till we find races among whom human flesh is an article of trade, and
funerals are almost unknown.
Human bone m the fork of a branch ; a
cannibal memento from Fiji. (Leip-
zig Museum of Ethnology. )
§ 13. THE STATE
All races live in some kind of civil union — Development of states — Farmers and shepherds as founders of
states — Distinctive marks of the prhnitive foundations-^Cause of arbitrary power — Power of the chiefs —
War — Causes of its frequency — Ruinous effects of a permanent state of war — Universal mistrust — Rarity
of alliances — Sham wars — Frontiers — Loose cohesion of primitive states.
No race is without political organisation, even though it be so lax as among the
Bushmen, whose little bands united for hunting or plunder are occasionally without
leaders ; or as we find among other degraded or scattered tribes, who are often
held together only by superstition and want. What sociologists call individualism
has never been found anywhere in the world as a feature in any race. When
ancient races fall to pieces new ones quickly form themselves out of the fragments.
K
13°
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
This process is constantly going on. " Each individual stock," says Lichtenstein,
" is in some measure only a transitory phenomenon. It will in course of time be
swallowed up by one more powerful, or if more fortunate will split up into several
smaller hordes which go off in different directions, and, after a few generations,
know no more of each other."
These political mutations
have always the character of
a re-crystallisation, not of a
shapeless breaking up. It is
only seldom that the organ-
ism is of long duration. One
of the marks of the civilized
man is that he accustoms
himself to the pressure of the
laws in the fulfilling of which
he is himself practically in-
terested. But if a compara-
tively well-ordered constitu-
tion has been founded among
negroes, another community
is sure soon to make its ap-
pearance on the frontier com-
posed of persons belonging
to the same stock who are
subject to no ordinances, and
these lawless outcasts often
obtain through their freedom
from every legal restraint and
every regard for tribal rela-
tions, even through the con-
sideration which attracts to
them all the boldest and
neediest men from neigh-
bouring tribes, a force which
is capable of converting the
robber tribe into a conquer-
ing, state-founding, and ruling
people. Plunder and conquest
pass easily into one another.
In all countries of which we know the history, predatory tribes have played an
important part.
Most of what we know of the history of the natural races is the history
of their wars. The first importation of firearms, which permitted unimportant
powers to rise rapidly, marks the most sharply-defined epoch in the history of
all negro states. What Wissmann says about the Kioko, "with them came
firearms and therewith the formation of powerful kingdoms," is true of all. Is not
this constant fighting the primitive condition of man in its lowest manifestation ?
To this it may be answered that hitherto our own peace has never been anything
Zulu chief in full war-dress. (From a photograph in the possession
of Dr. Wangemann. )
THE STATE 131
but armed, but among us serious outbreaks of the warlike impulse are interrup-
tions in longer intervals of rest which are enjoined by the conditions of civiliza-
tion, while among the races of which we are speaking, a condition like our mediaeval
" club law " is very often permanent. Yet even so it must be pointed out that
among barbarians also there are peaceful races and peace-loving rulers. Let us
not forget that the bloodiest and most ruinous wars waged by the natural races
have been those which they have carried on not among themselves but with
Europeans, and that nothing has kindled violence and cruelty among them in
such a high degree as has the slave trade, instigated by the avarice of more highly
civilized strangers, with its horrible consequence of slave -hunting. When the
most charitably just of all men who have criticised the natural races, the peaceable
David Livingstone, could write in his last journal these words : " The principle of
Peace at any Price leads to loss of dignity and injustice ; the fighting spirit is one
of the necessities of life. When men have little or none of it they are exposed
to unworthy treatment and injuries," — we can see that the inevitableness of
fighting between men is a great and obtrusive fact.
But this state of war does not exclude civil ordinances, rather it evokes them.
It is no longer war of all against all, but it rather represents a phase in the evolution
of the national life when it has already been long in process of forming a state. The
most important step from savagery to culture is the emancipation of the individual
man from complete or temporary segregation or isolation. All that co-operates in
the creation of societies as distinct from families was of the very greatest importance
in the earliest stages of the evolution of culture, and here the struggle with Nature,
in the widest sense, afforded the most important incitements. The acquisition of
food might in the first instance give rise to association in joint hunting and still
more in joint fishing. Not the least advantage of the latter is the disciplining
of the crews. In the larger fishing boats a leader has to be selected who must
be implicitly obeyed, since all success depends upon obedience. Governing
the ship paves the way to ruling the state. In the life of a race like that of-
the Solomon Islanders, usually reckoned complete savages, sea-faring is undoubtedly
the only element which can concentrate their forces. The agriculturist living
isolated will certainly never feel an impulse making so strongly for union ; yet he
too has motives for combination, he owns property, and in this property inheres
a capital for his labour. Since this labour does not need to be again executed by
the inheritors of this property, there follows of itself the continuity of ownership
and therewith the importance of blood relationship. Secondly, we find bound
up with agriculture the tendency to dense population. Next, as this popula-
tion draws closer and marks its boundaries, it, like every multitude of men who
live on the same spot of earth, acquires common interests, and diminutive
agricultural states spring up. Among shepherds and nomads the formation of
states progresses more quickly, just in proportion as the need for combination is
more active and includes wider spaces. This indeed lies in the nature of their
occupation. Thus while the family is in this case of greater importance than in
that first mentioned, the possibility of denser population is, on the other hand,
excluded. But here the property requires stronger defence, and this is guaranteed
by concentration, in the first place of the family. From an economic point of
view it is more reasonable for many to live by one great herd than for the herd
to be much subdivided. A herd is easily scattered, and requires strength to keep
132
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
it together. It is therefore no chance result that the family nowhere attains to
such political importance as among nomad races. Here the patriarchal element
in the formation of tribes and states is most decidedly marked ; in a hunter-state
the strongest is the centre of power, in a shepherd-state the eldest.
We are apt to regard despotism as a lower form of development in comparison
with the constitutional state, and attribute to it accordingly a high antiquity. It
used formerly to be thought that beginnings of political life might be seen shaping
The Basuto chief Secocoeni with his court. (From a photograph in the possession of Dr. Wangemann.)
themselves in the forms of it. But this is contradicted at the very outset by the
fact that despotism stands in opposition to the tribal or patriarchal origin from
which these states have grown. The family stock has of course a leader, usually
the eldest ; but apart from warfare his power is almost nil, and to over-estimate
it is one of the most frequent sources of political mistakes made by white men.
The chief's nearest relations in point of fact do not stand far enough below him
to be mingled indiscriminately in the mass of the population over which he rules.
Thus we find them already striving to give a more oligarchical character to the
government. The so-called court of African or ancient American. princes is doubt-
less the council which surrounds them on public occasions. Arbitrary rule, though
we find no doubt traces of it everywhere in the lower grades, even when the form
of government is republican, has its basis not in the strength of the state or the
THE STATE
133.
chief, but in the moral weakness of the individual, who submits almost without
resistance to the domineering power. In spite of individual tyranny there is a
vein of democracy running through all the political institutions of the " natural "
races. Nor could it well be otherwise in a society which was built up upon the
gens, kindred in blood, communistic, under the system of " mother-right." But
herein lay no doubt an obstacle to progress.
The power of the
sovereign is greatly
strengthened by alli-
ance with the priest-
hood. A tendency to
theocracy is incidental
to all constitutions, and
very often the import-
ance of the priest sur-
passes that of the ruler
in the person of the
chief. The weak chiefs
of Melanesia, in order
not to be quite power-
less, apply the mystic
Duk-Duk system to
their own purposes ;
while 'vs\ Africa it is
among the functions
of the chief to make
atonement for his
people by magic arts,
when they have in-
curred' the wrath of
higher Powers, and to
obtain for them by
prayers or charms ad-
vantages of all kinds.
This, however, does
not prevent the influ-
ence of the chief from
being overshadowed
by that of a priest
who happens to be in possession of some great fetish. Conversion to Christianity
has almost always destroyed the power of the native chiefs, unless they have
contrived to take the people with them. But the religious sentiment is the one
thing that has maintained respect for a chief's children, even when they have
become slaves.
The power of the chief is further heightened when the monopoly of trade is
combined with his magic powers. Since he is the intermediary of trade, he- gets
into his own hands everything coveted by his subjects, and becomes the bestower
of good gifts, the fulfiller of the most cherished wishes. This system finds its
A Dakota chief. (From a photograph. )
134 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
highest development in Africa, where the most wealthy and liberal chief is
reckoned the best. In it lies the secure source of great power and often of
beneficial results. For at this point we must not overlook the fact that one of
the most conspicuous incitements to progress, or, let us say more cautiously, to
changes in the amount of culture which a race possesses, is to be sought in the
will of prominent individuals. We also find chiefs, however, whose power is firmly
based upon superior knowledge or skill. The Manyema chief Moenekuss, so
attractively depicted by Livingstone, was keen about having his son taught
blacksmithing, and the Namaqua chief, Lamert, was the most efficient smith among
his tribe. But of course it is in the art of war that accomplishment is most valued
in a chief In giving judgment, he needs no great abundance of Solomonian
wisdom, since in all more serious accusations the culprit is ascertained by means
of magic, and in this duty too the popular council generally co-operates. Mean-
while whatever the chief's position may be, it is never comparable with the power
conferred by the wealth of culture existing in a European people ; and it were
to hz wished that descriptive travellers would employ such terms as " king,"
" palace," and the like with more discretion. It is only among the war-chiefs
that regal parade is customary ; the others are often scarcely distinguished from
tiieir people.
Every race has some kind of legal system ; among most of the " natural "
races, indeed, this fluctuates between that under which the injured person takes
the law into his own hands, and that of money-atonement for the offence. There
is no question of the majesty of the law ; all that is thought of is the indemnifica-
tion of the person who has suffered damage. In Malayan law, for example, the
former course may be taken with a culprit caught in flagrante delicto even to the
point of killing a thief ; but in any other case redemption, that is a money penalty,
is enjoined ; and similarly among the negro races. Among lower as well as
higher races violence has a very free play, and tends to limit its sphere as among
individuals according to the resistance with which it meets. Blood-feuds in
various degrees are to be found among all barbarous races. In the case of
Polynesians and Melanesians they reach a fearful pitch. Cook tells us that the
New Zealanders appeared to him to live in constant mutual dread of attack, and
that there were very few tribes who did not conceive themselves to have suffered
some injury at the hands of another tribe and meditate revenge for it.
The wars of " natural " races are often far less bloody than those waged
among ourselves, frequently degenerating into mere caricatures of warlike opera-
tions. Still the loss of life caused by them must not be under-estimated, since
they last for a long time, and the countries inhabited by " natural " races can in
any case show only small population. In the case of Fiji, Mr. Williams estimates
the yearly loss of human lives in the period of barbarism at 1500 to 2000, "not
including the widows who were strangled as soon as the death of their husbands
was reported." These figures are quite sufficient to have contributed materially
to the decrease of the population. Firearms have diminished war, while increas-
ing the losses. But with this continual war, guerilla war as it might be termed,
are associated those catastrophes resulting from raids, in which great destruction
of human life accompanies the outbreaks of warlike passion. The final aim of a
serious war among the natural races is not the defeat, but the extermination of
the adversary ; if the men cannot be reached, the attack is made upon women
THE STATE
135
and children, especially where there is a superstitious passion for the collection
of human skulls, as among the head-hunting Dyaks of Borneo. Of south-east
Africa, Harris says : " Whole tribes have been drawn root and branch from their
dwelling-places, to disappear from the earth, or to wander with varying fortunes
over illimitable tracts, driven
by the inexorable arm of
hunger. Therefore for hun-
dreds of miles no trace of
native industry meets our eyes,
nor does any human habita-
tion ; never-ending wars pre-
sent the picture of one unin-
habited wilderness." Rapine
is associated with murder to
produce a misery which civil-
ized races can hardly realise.
But the culmination of this
devastating power is reached
when more highly endowed, or
at least better organised hordes
of warriors and plunderers,
well practised in slaughter and
cruelty, appear on the scene.
Amputation of hands and
feet, cutting off of noses and
ears, are usual. This ill-treat-
ment often has the secondary
object of marking a prisoner,
and to this must be referred
the tattooing of prisoners of
war. Lichtenstein saw a
Nama whom the Damaras
had taken prisoner. They
had circumcised him and ex-
tracted his middle upper front
teeth : " He showed us this,
and added that if he had
been caught by them a second
time, these very recognisable
marks would inevitably have entailed the loss of his life."
Losses of life and health may be repaired by a few generations of peace, but
what remains is the profound moral effect. This is the shattering of all trust in
fellow-men and in the operation of moral forces, of the love of peace and the
sanctity of the pledged word. If the politics of civilized races are not distin-
guished by fidelity and confidence, those of the natural races are the expression
of the lowest qualities of mistrust, treachery, and recklessness. The only means
employed to attain an object are trickery or intimidation. In the dealings of
Europeans with natural races they have, owing to this, had the great advantage
Articles belonging to Dyak Iiead-hunters : — i. Shield ornamented with
human hair ; 2. Sword and knife ; 3. Skull with engraved ornament
and metal plate ; 4. Basket to hold a skull, (i and 2 probably
from Kutei ; 3 and 4 from W. Borneo. Munich Museum. )
136 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
of very rarely having to face a strong combination of native powers. The single
example of any great note is the alliance of the " six nations " of North American
Indians belonging to the Iroquois stock, which was dangerous to Europeans in
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. An attempt at an alliance, which
might have been very serious, was made after the so-called Sand River treaty of
1852 by Griquas, Basutos, Bakwenas, and other Bechuana tribes, but never
came to completion, and recent years have again shown abundantly how little
the South African tribes can do in spite of their numbers and their often con-
spicuous valour, for want of the mutual confidence which might unite them and
give a firm ground for their efforts.
Constant fear and insecurity on the part of native races is a necessary result
of frequent treachery on that of their foes. It is significant that the great
majority of barbarous peoples are so fond of weapons and never go unarmed ;
and nothing better indicates the higher state of civic life in Uganda than that
walking sticks there take the place of weapons. It is noted as a striking feature
when no weapons are carried, as Finsch points out with regard to the people of
Parsee Point in New Guinea.
The custom of treating strangers as enemies, under a superstitious fear of
misfortune and sickness, or of knocking on the head persons thrown on shore by
shipwreck like " washed up cocoa-nuts," was certainly a great hindrance to expan-
sion. But we hear that among the Melanesians the question was discussed
whether this was lawful, and that even strangers used to link themselves by
marriage with a new place. If they belonged to a neighbouring island or group
of islands they were not treated altogether as strangers, since they were not
regarded as uncanny. Polynesians, who were frequently driven upon the Banks
Islands, were received there in a friendly manner. If scarcely one of the innumer-
able exploring expeditions in Australia made its way without being threatened
or attacked by the aborigines, we must not overlook involuntary violations of
the frontiers of native districts, for even to this day in Central Australia unlicensed
entry upon foreign territory reckons as a serious trespass.
Thus, as in the family and in society, we meet also in the political domain
with a tendency to the sharpest separation. Who does not recognise in this
latent state of war a great cause of the backward condition of the " natural " races ?
The greatness of civilized states, which have worked themselves up to the clear
heights of development, lies in the fact that they act upon each other by means
of mutual incitement, and so are ever bringing forth more perfect results. But
this mutual incitement is just what is missing in a state of continuous war. The
forces which make for culture both from within and without are alike weakened,
and the consequence is stagnation if not retrogression.
Want of defined frontiers is in the essence of the formation of barbarous
states. The line is intentionally not drawn, but kept open as a clear space of
varying breadth. Even when we reach the semi-civilized states the frontiers are
liable to be uncertain. The entire state is not closely dependent upon the area
which it covers, especially not upon the parts near the borders. Only the political
centre, the most essential point of the whole structure, is fixed. From it the
power which holds the state together causes its strength to be felt through the
outlying regions in varying measure. We have examples of frontier points and
frontier spaces at every stage. The frontier spaces are kept clear, and even
THE STATE
137
serve as common hunt-
ing-grounds, but they
serve also as habitations
for forces hostile to civil
authority, forv desper-
adoes of every shade of
villainy.
Not infrequently the
formation of new states
starts from these spaces.
The cases in which sharp
frontiers are soonest
formed is where the two
fundamentally different
modes of civilization and
life, nomadism and agri-
culture, come in contact.
Here of necessity fron-
tiers are sharply drawn
against races of the
steppes, and art endea-
vours to contribute its
aid by building earth-
works and even walls.
The region of the steppes
is the country of the
great wall of China, and
of the ramparts thrown
up by Turks and Cos-
sacks.
Leopold von Ranke
has stated as a maxim
of experience that when
we study universal his-
tory it is not as a rule
great monarchies that
first present themselves,
but small tribal districts
or confederacies of the
nature of states. This
is shown in the history
of all great empires ;
even the Chinese can be
carried back to small
beginnings. No doubt
they have been of short
duration with the single
exception of the Roman
Kingsmill Islander in full armour. (Berlin Museum of Ethnology.)
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Empire. Even that of China has passed through its periods of breaking up.
From the Roman Empire the nations have learnt how great territories must be
ruled in order to keep them great in extent, for since its time history has seen
many empires, even surpassing the Roman in magnitude, arise and maintain
themselves for centuries. Apart from the way in which the teaching of history
__ has been taken to
heart, the increase
of population and
the consequent ac-
cession of import-
ance to the ma-
terial interests of
the people has un-
questionably con-
tributed to this.
But there are
deeper- lying rea-
sons for the small-
ness of primitive
states. Among
most " natural "
races the family
and the society
form unions so
large, so frequently
coinciding, so ex-
clusive, that little
remains to spare
for the state. The
rapid break-up of
empires is counter-
balanced by the
sturdy tribal life.
When the empires
fall to pieces new
ones form them-
selves from the old
tribes. The family
of blood -relations,
u 1 MI '" their common
barrack or village, represents at the same time a political unit, which can from
time to time enter into combination with others of the kind ; to which oerhaos
It IS bound by more distant relationship. But it is quite content to remain by
Itself so ong as no external power operates to shake its narrow contentment
Negro Africa with all its wealth of population, contains no single really large
state. In that _ country, the greater an empire the less its duration and the
looser Its cohesion. It requires greater organising and consolidating power
such as we meet with among the Fulbes or Wahuma, not merely to found'
Lango chief and magician.
(From a photograph by Richard Buchta. )
1. Difuma dia Di-
kongo. Iron sceptre,
borne by the Bashi-
lang chief, Mana Kat-
embe.
2. Baluba wooden
shield with cross-weav-
ing.
3. Basonge chief's
staff of iron ; the figure
overlaid with sheet-
copper.
4. Basonge orna-
mental spear (Zappu
Zapp) inlaid with
copper.
5. Ornamental
spear from the Ruiki.
6. Basonge spear.
7. Baluba spear.
8. Samba spear.
9. Baluba double
drum.
I o. Baluba woven
bark mat.
II. Baluba big
drum, used at festivals.
(i-io from the
Wissmann Collection ;
1 1 from the Pogge
Collection. )
Insignia, ornamental weapons, and drums from the Southern Congo territory.
I40 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
but also, even if with difficulty, to maintain kingdoms like Sokoto or Uganda.
Even the Zulus, high as they stand in warlike organisation, have never been
able to spread permanently beyond their natural boundaries, and at the same
time maintain cohesion with their own country. They have not the capacity
for planning a peaceable organisation. Even in the Mussulman states of
the Soudan we meet with this want of firm internal cohesion ; which is equally
at the bottom of the weakness which brought down the native states of Central
and South America. The more closely we look at the actual facts about Old
Mexico, the less inclined shall we be to apply terms like empire and emperor to
the loose confederation of chiefs on the plateau of Anahuac. The greatness of
the Inca realm was exaggerated to the point of fable. When we hear of the
renowned and redoubtable tribe of the Mandan Indians, we are astonished to
learn that it numbered only from 900 to lood souls. In the Malay Archipelago
it seems not to have been until the arrival of Islam that the formation of states
rose above disjointed village communities. Even in our own day the great
powers of South and East Asia lacked the clearness and definition in the matter
of political allegiance, which are a privilege of the higher civilizations.
Instead of the extension of single states, what takes place is the foundation
of new ones by migration and conquest. It is the multiplication of cells by fission
instead of the growth of the organism. It is striking how often the same legend
or tradition recurs in Africa or elsewhere. A monarch sends out a band of
warriors to conquer a country or a town ; if the enterprise fails they settle down
quietly and marry the daughters of the people whom they came to overthrow.
Such was the origin of the Matabele ; such, it is said, that of the kindred Masitu.
Thus too are explained the Fulbe settlements on the Lower Niger, and the Chinese
oases in the Shan States. Without crediting all these traditions, we may see in
them a proof at once of the great part played by war in blending races in ancient
times, and of the difficulty of founding coherent states. Instead of these we find
colonies which cut themselves loose either peaceably or after a war. The Alfurs
of the eastern islands in the Malay Archipelago have definite rules for the
government of their colonies ; and in Polynesia of old, colonisation must have
been as necessary in the life of a state as formerly in Greece.
Among races in a low stage the cementing force of contests waged against
natural dangers, threatening the entire community and binding them together for
common defence, is naturally but little felt. A strongly uniting power, by pro-
moting the value of common interests, has a favourable effect on the general
culture. In the low-lying tracts on the coast of the North Sea, in Germany and
Holland, the common danger from broken dykes and inundation by reason of
furious storms and high tides has evoked a feeling of union which has had
important results. There is a deep meaning in the myths which intimately
connect the fight against these forces of Nature, these hundred-headed hydras, or
sea-monsters crawling on to the land, with the extortion of the highest benefits
for races in the foundation of states and the acquisition of culture. No race
shows this more than the Chinese, whose land, abounding in streams and
marshes, was able to offer more than sufficient work to its embanking and draining
heroes — Schem, Schun, Jao, and their like. In Egypt a similar effect of the
anxiety for the yearly watering and marking out of the land is obvious from
history.
THE STATE Hi
Generally all common needs which draw men out of barren isolation must
have the effect of promoting culture. Above all, too, they strengthen the con-
stitution which organises the work done to satisfy those needs. States are created
by common sovereignty and common requirements. But the sovereignty must
come first. Outside the sphere of European civilization almost all states are ruled
by intruding conquerors ; that is by foreigners. The consciousness of national
dentity does not come into existence until later, and then makes its way as a
state-forming force if the intellectual interests of the race add their weight on the
same side. In almost all countries representing greater political units, we find
for this reason various nationalities. At first one: is superior to another, then they
are co-ordinate ; it is only in small states that the entire people has all along been
formed of a single stock.
BOOK II
THE AMERICAN-PACIFIC GROUP OF RACES
A. ^ 1-9, Races of Oceania — B. §§ 10-15, Races of Australia — C. §§ 16-21, Malays and Mala-
gasies— D i. §§ 22-30, Americans and Hyperboreans — D. ii. §§ 31-32, Civilized races of
early America — E. § 33, The Arctic races.
MAP OF THE RACES OF OCEANIA and AUSTRALASIA
EXJrom 90 Greernvich.
Stpai^hihaired , ligllt-brorwTi Race (Jfalqvs.purRor jnix-edwith Chinese, Japanese and Indicm-s )
^^^^ CrispKaired , (lark-l)roTVil Race {Melancsians , Papuas, Neffritos j
W'-v,^- "k-^-^^J "K^«,*™. "R^--!. / separate. or mixed witli the two aljove iLamed \
KVj hatred . l>rawiiBace {EastFalajs.so-calUdAmLrs,Foljnesians &AusiraUzt7is >
S ub d iv i s i o 11 s :
A £astMalajs (with, curled, hair) B Mieranesiaas C Tohmesians D Ausiralians
E Malofjasies
' "'" Limits of the districts ivhere the adiur^ ontice^, Sago, Bread-fruit, Taro and Yam prevails.
4.4 + -f ++ Souffiem Umit of tetterJwuse-bmldinff , associated- oceasionalij -with, aqrieidJiire:
Fo^Tutsiaiv coloTiies in. Melanesia, and. MicroTiesia .
•Distrift- of preraSijig Chinese i and formerly Japane.se- > ijifhtence..
- District of prevailing Indian, inflizence.
Bibliographisch.es Institul Leipzig-
3 4 1 7
Polynesian clubs and insignia of rank,
i, ^. State-paddles from the Hervey Islands. 3-5. State-clubs from the Marquesas. 6-11. Clul\s from Tonga.
A. THE RACES OF OCEANIA
§ I. GENERAL SURVEY OF THE GROUP
The position of the Pacific Ocean in history — The Indians of Columbus — Situation of America in the inhabited
world — Racial resemblances of the people of Oceania to Malays and Indians — Ethnographic relation-
ships—Position of Japan and North-west America — The great groups ; Oceanians, Malays with Mala-
gasies, Australians, Americans — The Malayo-Polynesian family of languages — To what period are the
relations of America, Oceania, and Asia to be referred — The vacant space between Easter Island and
Peru, and the relations of America with Polynesia.
Since the Pacific ocean lies between the eastern and western portions of the
inhabited earth, the inhabitants of its islands appear in a general survey as the
instruments of an important ethnographical connection. From its western border
we can follow Asiatic traces far towards the east in a gradual transition across
the islands. They grow fainter as we go east, but some remain even in the most
eastern islets of Polynesia, and some are found again on the opposite shore,
especially in those districts of North-west America which are distinguished by points
of agreement with Polynesia. It has been pointed out in the first section of our
introduction how closely the inhabitants of the Pacific islands are connected with
the Americans by the stone-period civilization, which is common and fundamental
to the eastern half of mankind, as well as by that inclusion in the Mongolian race,
which applies to by far the greater part of them. This connection is one of the
most important facts in the ethnographical distribution of the human race as it now
exists. It has been said that the key to the greatest problems of ethnography is
to be found in America. If we can succeed in bringing the inhabitants of this the
largest and most isolated island of the world into connection with the rest of man-
kind, then in any case the unity of the human race is established. But the con-
nection can only be sought by way of the Pacific, for ancient America looks westward.
From this side America must have been discovered long before the Northmen found
their way to its shores from the east. Among the peculiarities of the inhabitants
■of Guanahani which most astonished Columbus, was their lack of iron, as he noted
in his log-book as long ago as 13th October 1492. No subsequent discovery has
succeeded in putting this significant fact of old American, and at the same time
of Oceanian, ethnography in another light. With the exception of a strip in the
north-west, which became acquainted with iron from Asia, America was, when
discovered, still in the stone age. Even its more civilized races, while producing
highly artistic work in gold, silver, copper, and bronze, use weapons and imple-
ments of stone. When Africa was discovered by the Europeans it was manufac-
turing iron right away to the Hottentot country. The races of the Malay
Archipelago wrought artistically in iron. In Northern Asia only one strip on
the coast where their traffic was small was without iron. Thus the domain of
the ironless races lies on the eastern border of the inhabited earth ; it embraces
L
146
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Australia, the Pacific Islands, the Arctic region, and America. Absence of iron
implies limitation to the use of stone, bone, or wood, for imperfect weapons and
utensils implies, too, exclusion from the possibility of such industrial progress as
is based upon iron and steel. Within the line which includes the ironless races
there is to be observed also the want of the most valuable domestic animals ; oxen,
buffaloes, sheep, goats, elephants, camels, are here unknown, and consequently
there is no cattle-breeding.
The racial affinities of the Americans also point, not across the Atlantic, but
Araucanian man and woman. (From a photograph )
across the Pacific. When Columbus said of the natives of the West Indies,
" they are neither white nor black,'' he means that he can compare them neither
with Europeans nor negroes. In later times the difference of the Americans
from negroes, and their resemblance to the races on the western border of the
Pacific, has often been more clearly indicated. Whatever isolated characteristics
we may yet be able to adduce among all races at a similar level of civilisation,,
the Americans stand nearest to those who live to the westward of them. If we
unroll a map on Mercator's projection, and cast our eyes upon the earth and its
races, the Americans find their place on the east wing contrasted with, and
furthest separated from those who have their dwelling on the eastern borders of
the dividing gulf of the Atlantic ocean.
As the most easterly part of the Pacific-American region of the stone-using
countries, America is at the same time the true Orient of the inhabited earth.
The whole of America shares with Polynesia, and did once share with Northern
GENERAL SURVEY OF THE GROUP 147
Asia, all the distinctive marks of stone-age countries, which have sometimes a more
Polynesian, sometimes a more Northern Asiatic character. It is, however, in many
respects poorer than either, since it possesses neither the pig nor the taro of the
Polynesians, nor the reindeer herds of Northern Asia. This poverty, due to
remoteness, confirms us in the notion that in America we have the final link in
a chain of distribution of which the beginning is to be sought on the eastern
shore of the Atlantic. With the ordinary idea that American evolution exhibits
an isolated, almost insulated, independence, our view is only apparently in contra-
diction. Within the lines of its affinity with the eastern lands of the inhabited
world, America is, in any case, a region of extreme independence, firmly based on
the geographical fact of its situation between the two largest oceans. But this
finds expression far less in individual ethnographical peculiarities than in points of
conformity which mark it off as a whole. The .specialty is not of kind but of
degree. If we look at bodily characteristics, the conformity of all Red Indians
among themselves is very great, so long as we consider skin, hair, and physiognomy ;
but if we include the skull, it breaks down. Here we are in presence of the same
contradiction that meets us as an internal point of difference among the islanders
of the Pacific. With A. von Humboldt, with the Prince of Wied, and with Morton,
we can only hold fast to the external unity of the race. The results of investigating
the -skulls will, to all appearance, only prove that a more ancient variety of racial
elements is concealed under the insular uniformity of to-day. But there can be
no doubt as to the affinity of the American tribes with the great Mongoloid race,
and, moreover, with that branch of it to which the dwellers in Eastern Oceania
belong. Of both the similarity is shown in a comparison of colour, hair, and
skeleton.
What in a racial point of view-severs the people of Oceania most profoundly
from their neighbours to the eastward, is the unmistakable extension of the
Indo-African group of races into the midst of their island-region. Individual
small groups of these negroids are undoubtedly scattered over all the archipelagos,
and have here and there imparted to the original Malay colouring a deeper
Polynesian tint ; but neither are traces of them lacking in America. The
species of mankind that occur in the South Sea Islands were long ago brought
by Forster into two main divisions. One was lighter coloured, better shaped, of
strong muscular build, handsome stature, and gentle, good-natured character ; the
other blacker, with hair becoming crisp and wavy, leaner, smaller, almost more lively
than the other, but at the same time more suspicious. These are the " Poly-
nesians " and " Melanesians " of more recent ethnographers. They cannot always
be distinguished. Where it was supposed that only members of the latter group
existed, scattered examples, nay, sometimes whole tribes of the lighter-skinned
straight-haired race have turned up ; while even among the Samoans, Virchow is
decided in assuming a certain negroid strain. Finsch describes the natives of
Port Moresby as follows : " We find here every variety, from perfectly smooth
hair to the twisted wig of the Papua ; curiy heads, some of a red blonde, are
frequent ; Japanese or Jewish physiognomies, even men with eagle noses, remind-
ing one of Redskins, are not rare. So too with the colour of the skin." The
least we can do is to leave the possibility of mixed descent an open question, as
Wilkes did with the Paumotu Islanders. The question of origin becomes more
complicated ; but it is surely better, in place of assuming a pure Polynesian origin
148
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
from the north-east, to draw also a line of affinity towards the north-west, than
with Crozet and others to drag up again the worn-out hypothesis of a dark-skinned
" primeval population." If two races dwell in the Pacific, two races may have
migrated thither, especially if they were used to sea and ships.
The race-relationship with the inhabitants of the Malay Archipelago is apt to
be asserted with all the more emphasis because the language-relationship so clearly
points to it. But we must keep these two relationships quite distinct. Those
races of the Malay Archipelago which show Asiatic affinities in lighter skin or
Bakairi girl from the Kulishu river. (After Dr. R. von den Steinen. )
Chinese eyes, are perhaps more strongly represented in some islands of Micronesia.
The real Polynesians are more closely linked to the races with negroid elements
in them dwelling eastward from Java and the Philippines. Physically the Poly-
nesians are less like the inhabitants of the Malay Archipelago than are the Hovas
of Madagascar. Since the time of the elder Lesson it has been usual to trace the
descent of the Polynesians from Dyaks, Battaks, Maoris, Alfurs, owing to their
obviously small resemblance to the Malays proper. Topinard even refers the mass
of the Polynesians to North America ; holding that conquerors, in no great
number, may have come from Buru in Celebes ; but we do not yet possess the
fuller anthropological evidence, based on a multiplication of measurements, required
to prove this view. Suffice it to say that it replaces the artificial theory, insuf-
ficiently grounded on either philology or ethnology, of a single immigration and
simple branching-off, by a permeation and cleavage of races. In the next section, on
the migration of the Polynesians, we shall adduce a series of facts in support of it.
GENERAL SURVEY OF THE GROUP
149
Given the existence of a group of sea-faring races, who, gradually by dint of
uninterrupted voluntary and involuntary migration, occupied various coast and
island-districts of the Pacific Ocean, there follows necessarily, if we allow for long
periods, a wide distribution over this large district ; and therewith arises that
ethnographic agreement which connects the lands on the eastern and western
borders of the Pacific Ocean. Zuniga's meteorological basis of belief for asserting
the South American origin of the Tagals, namely, the impossibility of bearing up
against the south-east trades, can as little be maintained as the likeness asserted
by him to exist between Tagalese and Chilian. Since his day the knowledge of the
ethnography of the American races has pro-
gressed. We see how both east and west
of the Pacific religious beliefs and usages
are based upon the same animistic belief
and upon an ancestor-worship which not
only stands on a similar footing, but
often assumes precisely concordant forms ;
just as the treatment of corpses and the
procedure of the priests embrace a whole
host of similar practices. The principles
of cosmogony, the high importance at-
tached to the tribal symbols, even less
prominent legends like that of the foun-
tain of life — Boas has briefly indicated
the remarkable conformity of north-west
American legends with those of the Ainus
and of Micronesia — and inconspicuous ex-
pedients of daily life, such as the employ-
ment of narcotics in the capture of fish, or
the shape of the fish-hooks, the dressing
of fish by steaming, the preparation of fer-
mented liquors, are alike in both regions.
Valuable evidence is given by conform-
ities in tattooing, in painting the body, in >
details of decorative mutilation ; more especially in the style of the necklaces
made of little polished disks of red, white, and black shells. Even the metallic
wealth of America could not oust the use of stone, bones, and shells. In connec-
tion with this important feature, we have already pointed out the common
prevalence of a definite type of economic life. We may refer once more to
the weapons ; the encroachment of the Asiatic bow upon North and Central
America or the similarity of the same weapon in South America and Melanesia.
On Nissan, in the Solomon Islands, a stone axe has lately been discovered
with a chamfer running almost round, just like the American, and like them
fastened into a piece of wood split into a fork. Probably many more finds of
this sort will occur. Wicker armour and cuirasses, with protection for the neck,
are most widely spread on the Asiatic and American borders of the Pacific ; but
extend far into the island world of the tropics. Throwing-sticks were at one time
thought to exist only among Australians and Eskimos ; now specimens are known
also from Mexico and Brazil. In North-west America, as in many parts of
Maori girl.
(From photograph in the possession of
Dr. Max Buchner. )
I50
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Oceania, especially in the Bismarck Archipelago, dancing-masks are used, with
curious ornamentation based upon the conventionalised figures of animals. In
one region we find otter and frog, beaver and hawk, arranged together ; in the
other snake, lizard, fish, beetle, bird. The masks of New Ireland remind us to
a striking degree of those used by the Haidas. Less importance is to be assigned
to the fact that in both these cases the eyes, and the ornaments in the shape
of eyes, are made with inlaid shell, than to the striking agreement in the
connection formed by the tongue dependent between the upper part, representing
Men of Ponap^ in the Carolines. {From a photograph in the Godeffroy Album.)
a broad animal's head, and a second animal. This arrangement of animals' heads
in a row along the middle line reminds us of North America, no less than the
eye-ornament, which is an essential element of the Pacific and American styles.
We must indeed note that it is not always between races lying nearest to each
other that the closest relations prevail. On the other we meet agreements not
merely at single points, but running all through the groups. Thus not merely
does the Dyak loom resemble that used by the Indians of North-west America ;
the practice of head-hunting, the cult of skulls, the use of human hair for orna-
ment, are common to both. The ornament of Malay fabrics is remarkably like
that of the early Americans. Among the Calchaquis of Northern Argentina we
find pottery painted with line drawings of birds, reptiles, and human faces, which
remind us of Peruvian, and no less, in selection and conventional treatment of the
themes, of Malay work. In customs too several features recur in a marked way.
Particular forms of greeting, the declaration of an agreement by the transfer of
GENERAL SURVEY OF THE GROUP
151
a piece of stick, the method of communicating by means of wooden drums, and so
on. But over all arises, like a great edifice common to all, the social order based
on " mother-right " and exogamy. We find it most distinctly in Australia and
Melanesia ; then again in America, while between the two, in Polynesia, lies a
region in which it has broken down and become obsolete. In South and North
America we meet with the same system, often repeated even in small details.
The impoverishment which we find becoming more and more conspicuous in
the animal and vegetable world of Oceania, as we proceed eastwards, in no way
holds good of mankind. In the Pacific the most recent development holds
the eastern parts ; the west and south are backward. The Melanesians occupy
as it were a depression in the level of
culture between Malays on the one
hand and Polynesians on the other.
But on the South American shores we
find in Peru a region of yet higher cul-
ture. If to the works of art we add
what is from an ethnographic point of
view a more important intellectual pos-
session, namely religious conceptions,
together with social and political insti-
tutions, we find the east standing higher
than the west ; and that is true not
only for Melanesia, but for Micronesia
■as well. No mistake on this point need
arise from the fact that more objects
in our museums come from islands
which have been ransacked later, or
which have fallen less into decay by
reason of white influence. In the
general position held by the two great
Pacific groups of races towards each other we can recognise a great difference of
level. The Melanesians are on the whole inferior to the Polynesians ; they
represent an earlier development, retaining much which among the latter has
already become obsolete. We cannot, however, at the present day decide whether
the proximity of America or independent evolution has been the cause of this_
superiority in the eastern parts of Oceania. Still not only the points of agree-
ment, but also the far shorter distance, are in favour of America.
If we group the races of this wide region into the Americans dwelling on the
eastern shores of the Pacific, and the inhabitants of the islands on its western
border, on the south, and far out in the ocean, we may denote the second group
by the name of Oceanians, seeing that the Pacific is the only ocean that possesses
so widespread a population having a character peculiar to itself The possession
(or lack) of a host of important articles links the oceanic races together in contra-
distinction to the Malays on the west and the Australians on the south. From
the Australians they are sharply divided ; but on the other hand they are
connected with the Malays by transitions which point partly to a closer connection
of origin, partly to influences of long standing. But as they have many points,
notably the use of stone, in common with the Americans, while the Malays
Boy of New Ireland (From a photograph )
is:
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
are within the domain of iron, they hold a very different position towards
these latter from that held for example by the most westerly outliers of that
race, the Malagasies.
While the Oceanic and
Australian races have,
together with the
Americans, remained
in the stone period of
civilization, the Aus-
tralians indeed degen-
erating in their isola-
tion, Malays and Mala-
gasies have gained by
means of influences
from Asia and Africa.
The importance of the
Malays lies to a great
extent in the fact that
they have been instru-
mental in the diffusion
of these influences
eastward. But the
connection of the
Oceanians with them
reaches back to an
early period. When
the regions of Oceania
were first unveiled to
Europeans in the six-
teenth century, iron
was found to have
advanced as far as
New Guinea, and the
influence of India, as
shown by details of
language and artistic
style, had extended to
the same point. This
influence was spread
by those active traders
and expert seamen, the
Malays, and with the
support of Eastern
Asia, which had not
then elevated exclu-
siveness to a principle of state, but had kept up an active traffic with the south,
it would have spread further. According to the statement of George Spilberg,
the crews of the fleet, which was equipped in 1 6 1 6 against the Dutch in Manilla,
Man of Xe«- South Wales. (From a photograph.)
GENERAL SURVEY OF THE GROUP
153
were composed of Indians, Chinese, and Japanese. An Indian bronze bell, with
an inscription in Tamil, has been found in the interior of New Zealand ; it was
the ship's bell of some Mussulman Tamil, and dates from the fourteenth century
at latest. The place of these weak and irregularly-acting influences has now been
taken by the weighty advance of the Europeans, under whose hands in the course
of 300 years almost all that was peculiar has died out, together with a great part
of the population.
The Malayo-Polynesians are at this day the most pronouncedly insular people
on the earth ; their only remaining
hold on the mainland is by the penin-
sula of Malacca. iBut we may main-
tain a continental origin for individual
tribes now living on islands, like the
Malays and Acheenese of Sumatra,
without any inducement from the desire
of finding an origin, or so-called cradle
of mankind, for all the races of the
earth, on the continent of Asia. H.
Kern assumes, on philological grounds
that the home of the Malayo-Poly-
nesians, including the Malagasies, was
situated in a tropical country, where
sugar-cane, coco-nut, rice, banana, rattan,
and iaro grew, and where they were
acquainted with dogs, pigs, poultry,
various kind of monkeys, turtles, pro-
bably also buffaloes and crocodiles, and
possibly even elephants and horses, and
that it was at no great distance from
the sea. He is most inclined to look
for the district of their origin in the
countries which are now called Cam-
bodia, Annam, and Siam. The Ma-
layan starting-point for the Polynesian
migration has been connected with the
word bolotu, used by Polynesians for
the next world, the abode of the gods ;
in which a reminiscence of Buru has been imagined. In spite of various indi-
cations in that direction, we can hardly reconcile ourselves to the notion that a
single insignificant island of the great Archipelago can have given rise to the
widely-scattered peoples of the Central Pacific — all the less when we find Malayo-
Polynesian affinities extending to the Melanesian Islands and Madagascar. The
continental origin of the Malayo-Polynesians is of special import for the right
understanding of them, since it reveals to us the possibility of their wider exten-
sion in former times in the western coast districts of the Pacific. Their presence
in Formosa, the traces of them in Japan, lead in that direction to a point
where the chain of relations with North-west America becomes more clearly
visible. The question whether these races had once a wide extension on the
Dyak woman of Borneo. (From a photograph in the
Damann Album. )
154 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
continent may here be passed over. Between Japan, where north-west American
influences are recognisable, and Formosa, to which the Malayo-Polynesians
extend at the present day, so narrow a gap is left that transference is almost
certain. But a more important fact is that with so much larger an extension
either on the coast or on islands towards the north, the possibility of direct
connection by means of migration, voluntary and involuntary, is increased.
The coast northward from the mouth of the Columbia river with its numerous
islands, more especially the part between Puget Sound and Cape Spencer, the
Beehive as Dall calls it, where continuous swarms of men are reared and sent forth,
is some four thousand miles in a straight h'ne from the Japanese archipelago. On
this side also, and from hence northward to the Behring Straits, there stretches a
region where the art of navigation is highly developed. The points of agreement
with America of which we get glimpses even under the peculiar and high
civilization of Japan grow thicker as we go north, until on the Behring Sea we
arrive at identity between the races dwelling on the Asiatic and American shores.
That very more recent extension of Asiatic characteristics over North America,
from which it results that South American races show in details points of
conformity with those of the south-west Pacific, while the North American are
more clearly traceable to the north-west Pacific, testifies to the advantages of the
northern road.
The Pacific islands are in the tropical zone separated from the American shore
by a space of forty to sixty degrees of longitude in which there are neither islands
nor inhabitants. The single group of any size, namely the Galapagos, which can
be reached in three days from the South American coast, seems never to have been
seen by any man before the first visit of Europeans. If we consider that this
empty space is only one-third as broad as that between Easter Island and the
most easterly islands of the Malay Archipelago, and that the Easter Islanders,
in order to reach their island from the Samoa group — generally considered the
common centre of dispersion for the Polynesians, — had to traverse a much longer
road than that space would involve, the gap will appear to us of much less
importance. In proportion to the inhabited part of the Pacific with its many
islands, this rift is not wide enough to prevent us from regarding the Pacific like
the Indian Ocean, and in contrast to the Atlantic, as an inhabited sea. We have
no historical record of voyages, voluntary or involuntary, in the region east from
Eastsr Island. Peruvian annals mention coasting voyages and more distant naval
expeditions for conquest or discovery. Pizarro met with trading ships, and the
Chinchas as well as the Chimus had traditions of a distant home across the sea.
But there is no historical indication of any immediate traffic between Polynesia
and South America. It is far more probable that the agreements and resemblances
are all contained within the four corners of a common inclusion of both parts in the
great Pacific group of races. The Chinese imagination again of a great land in the
east can only be interpreted as meaning North-west America, and the gold-bearing
islands which the Japanese placed in the east — Tasman was sent to discover them
and found the Bonin Islands, — belonged to legend. As to the derivation of the
old American civilizations from Asia, we shall have to speak of it in the American
division of our work.
Printed Try- fhi? Bibliograjhisches Institut. Leipzig
POLYNESIAN WEAPONS AND COSTUME.
POLYIfESIAN WEAPONS AND COSTUME.
t. Lance : Viti.
2. Feather-scepttB : Sandwich Islands.
3. " Partisan, "with shark's teeth : Kings-
mill Island.
S. Sacred staff : Cook Islands.
9. Feather head-ring : Sandwich Is-
lands.
10. Ornamental gorget : Tahiti.
11. Idol: Tahiti.
12. Dance Club : Vanikoro, Santa
Cruz.
All one-tenth of natural size. Nos> i, x, 4, 9 12, 13, i8, from the Ethnographical Museum, Berlin. The rest from British
Museum and Christy collection.
4. Fan : Sandwich Islands.
5. Dancing-cap: Cook or Society Islands,
6, 7. Feather helmets : Hawaii.
13. Tapa-c\otii : Tonga.
14. Feather cloak : Hawaii.
■5) 161 17. Feather masks : Hawaii.
18. Waier-bottle: Fiji.
19. Spear with shark's teeth : Kings-
mill Islands.
Club.
THE RACES OF THE PACIFIC AND THEIR MIGRATIONS 155
§ 2. THE RACES OF THE PACIFIC AND THEIR MIGRATIONS
The island groups, their climate and their cultivated plants — Number of the population, its decrease and
shifting — Traces of denser population and of civilization — Ruins — Migrations — Involuntary migrations in
the Pacific — Navigation and shipbuilding — Orientation — Trading journeys — Famine, war, and other
grounds of emigration and immigration — Legends of migrations — Migrations in mythology — Community
of speech and agreement of customs in Polynesia — Legend of Hawaiki — Polynesians in Melanesia and
Micronesia — Uninhabited islands — Date of the migrations — Ethnographical groups in the Pacific — Genea-
logy of the Australians.
Throughout the western and central part of the Pacific are many thousands of
islands scattered about in numerous groups. On the west they are connected by
larger islands with Australia and the Malayan Archipelago. There is first of all
New Guinea with the inner chain of the Melanesian islands ending on the east
with the Fiji group ; the New Zealand group lies isolated to the south-east. East-
ward beyond Fiji and northward beyond New Ireland lie countless smaller islands
forming Polynesia. They stretch away from the Carolines to Easter Island,
which is separated by a space of nearly 2500 miles from the South American
coast, and they stretch from the South Island of New Zealand to Hawaii. Within
the angle formed by a line running through the Mariannes towards Japan and
another running through the Pelew Islands towards the Philippines, there lies a
second group of still smaller islands called Micronesia. The separation between
the three groups does not penetrate far ; smaller groups within them may much
more naturally be excluded. Individual countries, larger and smaller, have plenty
of common peculiarities both in natural character and in the mode of their origin.
Long ago a natural division into high and low islands was recognised, the latter
including the coralline, the former the volcanic islands. This simple classifica-
tion does not indeed wholly correspond with the domain of phenomena, surface
phenomena, volcanic phenomena, and violent earthquakes occurring over the whole
length and breadth of the region ; while the coral formation has been developed
to an extent such as is nowhere else found in that tropical belt of the Pacific which
is richest in islands. Only certain islands, the chief of them being New Guinea
and the two larger islands of New Zealand, afford space 'for development on a
large scale, and sufficient to permit, more especially in Melanesia with its larger
islands, the growth of differences between up-country and coast tribes. New
Guinea does not indeed hold a position in Melanesia proportionate to its size, being
more sparsely inhabited than most of the islands lying in front of it, an evidence
for the indolence and unproductiveness of true Papuan labour and its development.
On the other side the distance of New Zealand from Polynesia prevented it from
exercising those more penetrating effects which might have been expected to
emanate from the largest among the islands. Thus we have before us, almost
universally, only the population of small and numerous areas, very unevenly
endowed, and widely separated from each other. Of all people the ethnographer
must bear that well in mind. Further, the denser population is confined to the
coast spaces, while the interior is thinly inhabited. Rapid changes from habitation
to non-habitation are frequent under these conditions ; nor is the list of islands
now uninhabited, but showing traces of former habitation, a short one. The
iS6
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
majority of the Pacific islands lie in a region where the prevailing currents and
winds move in a westerly direction, north and south of the equator, between the
annual isothermals of 68°. It has often been pointed out how the prevailing east
to west direction of the trade-winds would facilitate immigration from the New
Bread-fruit tree [Artocarpus incisus) : (a) inflorescence, (b) fruit.
World. In small districts the influence of the winds and currents is no doubt
great ; but the facts of migrations and castings-away show that, thougfl it may
often determine the lines of distribution of mankind, it does not always do so.
In more recent times, meteorology has no less shown us the existence of westerly
currents of air, than a study of the ocean has taught us that there is an equatorial
counter-current in the same direction. In their regular traffic the Polynesians
wait for a west wind to sail eastwards, and they have a corresponding tradition
that their domestic animals were brought from the west. By the time we reach
THE RACES OF THE PACIFIC AND THEIR MIGRATIONS
157
the Hervey or Cook's, and Tubuai or Austral groups, the west winds, which in
the southern hemisphere prevail south of 20°, begin to make themselves felt.
The flora and fauna of this region, the pronounced Asiatic character of which
Chamisso was the first to refer to the eastward migration of the Oceanians, have
little to offer for human use. Some of the most important cultivated plants
and domesticated animals have been imported ; such as pigs, dogs, poultry,
faro, and perhaps bananas too. But the tree which is most closely connected
with the island world, and which does most to give a character to its landscape,
the coco-nut, renders existence
possible even to the inhabitants
of the remote and low -lying
islands. While green, the nut
contains a liquid which is cool-
ing when fresh and intoxicating
when fermented. The olea-
ginous kernel, when older, is
nutritious and gives oil in
abundance. The shell of the
nut provides vessels ; the
fibres of its outer side furnish
a durable fabric ; the leaves
are used for thatching houses,
plaiting mats, sails, or baskets ;
the stem serves for building
huts and boats. Lastly, the
coco-nuts with their spreading
roots contribute to hold the
coral islands together and to
extend their area ; being, as
they are, among their earliest
and most frequent inhabitants
of the islands. Next to the
coco-palm the bread-fruit tree
is the most profitable of all things grown and cultivated in Polynesia. Cook's
saying, that six bread-fruit trees would keep a family, is well known. In the
third place comes the chief article of real agriculture, the taro plant. It and
the bread-fruit together have made life almost too easy in those parts. The
sago-palm extends from the west as far as Melanesia ; a great part of the popu-
lation of New Guinea is dependent on it.
Thus, in spite of their wide distribution, almost all the inhabitants of the
central Pacific have the more important conditions of life in common. If to this
we add the common possession of a mass of ethnographic characteristics we shall see
that, in spite of significant racial differences, Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia
form a single ethnographical domain. Islands of their nature make their
inhabitants seamen and wanderers. Accordingly we have here a region of
extensive colonisation, and we find settlements from one group of races in the
district of another ; though, by a curious contrast, in countries like New Guinea
or New Zealand, where there is such ample room for extension in the interior, the
^^'S-'^^^^^J^'^'jB^
Taro [Caladium esciilenUini) — one-half natural size.
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
people stick, in the great majority of cases, to the coast. Implements and customs
connected with seafaring and fishing show a general agreement. They must all do
without iron, and consequently have much skill in the working of stone, wood, and
shells. In weaving, they have attained a high level ; the loom has spread from
the west, while in the east and south they manufacture bark and bast. The
few domestic animals, the usual fruits of the field, and the intoxicating kava or ava,
are found throughout all three districts. In the social life the preponderance of
the tribe or commune over the family is more pronounced than perhaps anywhere
else ; while in the realm of religious conceptions there has arisen, out of a large
number of ideas common to all Polynesia, one of the most complete mythological
systems owned by any primitive race, which, with its luxuriance of legend, has.
overspread this vast area, and parts yet more remote.
The present population of the Pacific in the space between the western
promontory of New Guinea and Easter Island, and between the Hawaiian
Archipelago and New Zealand, is reckoned at not more than a million and a half,
not including whites. Yet even to-day on some of the Polynesian islands we find
such a density as borders on over-population. The Kingsmill, or Gilbert, group
counts 35,000 in less than 200 square miles, the Marshall Islands 12,000 in 170.
But these are all cases in which the inhabitants of small islands have the run
of the coco plantations and fishing-grounds belonging to an entire archipelago.
Tonga too — for one of the less bountifully endowed groups, — the Solomon Islands,
the Bismarck Archipelago, show a population that is relatively not at all thin.
Generally the smaller areas of land tend to a closer packing of the population.
But the great majority of the Pacific islands hold far fewer persons to-day belong-
ing to the original native races than they did before the arrival of European
influences. We must look not only at the figures, but at the geographical aspect.
The South Island of New Zealand and the Chatham Islands have no longer any
but a small and vanishing aboriginal population, and these crowded back into the
furthest corner ; while all the natural advantages have passed into the hands of the
more numerous and more active white inhabitants. The number of the Maoris
between 1835 and 1840 was reckoned with good reason at 100,000; to-day
there are 42,000, including numerous half-breeds, who will soon be the sole
survivors. So it is with Hawaii, and so even with the small islands. If we
inquire the causes of this phenomenon, which has already given occasion for great
dislocations in the regions of races and peoples, we find them everywhere the
same. After the remarks made in the Introduction (pp. 1 1, 12), we can sum up
the causes in the words used by Pennefather in 1888 as applied to the case of
the Maoris : drunkenness ; diseases ; clothing in bad European materials instead
of in their own close-woven mats ; a state of peace, which has allowed them to fall
into indolence, and to exchange healthy dwellings on fortified hills for damp sites in
the neighbourhood of their potato-fields ; ^ prosperity, which has introduced leisure
and pernicious modes of enjoying it. Progress on the lines of European custom
is opposed by their hereditary usages, especially their political subdivision and the
absence of private property in land. But the cannibalism of the Maoris has
played a special part in the destruction of the Maoraris of the Chatham Islands.
The importation of European diseases has in many districts accelerated the
' [Yet, says the late Mr. Stevenson, the Marquesans are dying out in the same houses where their fathers
multiplied.]
THE RACES OF THE PACIFIC AND THEIR MIGRATIONS 159
rate of decrease. Kubary's inquiry into the astonishing disappearance of the
Pelew Islanders, the most complete and comprehensive inquiry that we have for any
portion of Oceania, reveals a whole string of internal causes. Important pheno-
mena in the social life of the island races, such as adoption in its various forms,
the descent of titles to sons, the ruined state of large houses, point to a long
previous period of this lamentable decrease. The natives wrongly ascribe it to
the climatic disorder, influenza ; but the main cause must be sought in their
dissolute way of life, particularly in the case of the women. The deficiency of
births is so great that total extinction is anticipated in the near future. Early
licentiousness in both sexes ; special features in married life of a kind to deter
the younger women, so far as possible, from entering into bonds, and to inflict
upon the others the heavy labour of ta7'o cultivation, keeping couples apart and
placing considerations of utility before everything ; lastly, the practice of head-
hunting, which is not yet obsolete. Kubary stated in 1883 that in the last ten
years only thirty-four heads had been cut off; these causes offer a sufficient ex-
planation. In the light of the description given by the writer just quoted, the
entire population would seem to be in a morbid state, what with a tendency to
dysentery, induced by living exclusively on taro, the prevalence of intestinal
parasites, the liability of all the older people to chronic rheumatism as a result
of the climate and the exposure of the naked body, and the lack of endurance
of the man under circumstances of bodily exertion.
This decrease is in close connection with a decadence from levels of develop-
ment formerly attained in political and social matters, and even in arts and
crafts. In Micronesia they have ceased to build the large club or assembly
houses of former days ; and therewith a source of endless encouragement to fancy
and skill has been dried up. The people make fewer things than they used to
do — their originality has died out ; they are in a way to become poor ethno-
graphically. A glance into the past of these races reveals remains of bygone
generations, telling of another state of things, of a larger population, of more
considerable results from labour, of more enduring works. In the small Louisiade
group there is a network of roads far closer than is wanted by the present popu-
lation. On Pitcairn's Island, now deserted, there are the stone foundations of
morais, stone-axes, and in the caves skeletons lying near drawings of the moon,
stars, birds, and so on ; ancient fortifications crown the hills of Rapa, while in
Huahine in the Windward Islands a dolmen, built on to a morai in terraces, is
found beside a road of cyclopean stones. The ruins of Nanmatal in Ponap^
consist of square chambers, fenced with pillars of basalt and separated from each
other by channels. There are eighty of these stone islets ; some of them having
undoubtedly once served as sepulchral monuments. Among these ruins the tomb
of the kings of Matalanim rises, on a base 6 feet high and 290 feet long by 230
broad, to a height of about 30 feet, with walls 10 feet thick, formed of basalt
columns.
The most classical instances of this wealth of relics left by a more numerous
and more active generation are preserved in Easter Island. There the gigantic
stone images are something wonderful. Their great number is no less astonishing
than their size and the comparative high level of their workmanship. Even now they
are reckoned at several hundreds ; their height is nearly 50 feet, while in one case
the breadth across the shoulders is not less than i o feet. Many of them have
i6o
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
been thrown down and half-buried in rubbish ; but others stand on broad plat-
forms built of hewn stone. Originally many are said to have had head-covermgs
of reddish stone ; cylinders, according to Cook's description, of 5 feet diameter.
Some have hieroglyphics carved on their backs. These images,^ weighing many
tons, must at one time have been lowered down the mountain with hawsers, and
prepared, that is, engraved, in pits below. Naturally these images, whose number,
size, and clever workmanship contrast so strangely with the smallness of the
island, and the state of extreme simplicity in which the first Europeans found
the islanders, have given rise to many speculations as to their origin. Even so
Sepulchral monument in Ponap^, Caroline Islands. (From a photograph in the Godeffroy Album.)
sober a judge as Beechey declares it to be simply impossible that the Easter
Islanders can have executed these works ; both the sculpturing and the erection
of them, he thinks, far exceeded any capacity of theirs. What makes it yet
more difficult to answer these questions is the ignorance in which we are as to
their age, as to the reason why so many have been thrown down, and, lastly, as
to their object. Earthquakes of course may have thrown them down ; but no
observer, old or recent, has been able to divine the purpose they served. The
impression of decadence which one receives from the sight of such mighty works
among a race now so scanty, feeble, and impoverished, is strengthened when we
find that Easter Island shows masonry adapted to various purposes in the shape
sometimes of staged platforms, sometimes of huts, above or j below ground, and
with or without interior ornament in colour.
Oceania, as being, of all regions which men inhabit, the richest in islands, the
poorest in land, seems at the first glance a most favourable soil on which to study
isolated evolutions of civilization. It is, however, a region of constant intercourse,
and nowhere offers a wide or fertile soil for permanently independent evolution.
THE RACES OF THE PACIFIC AND THEIR MIGRATIONS i6i
It furnishes interesting evidence of the special directions in which individual
elements in the fund of civilization possessed by a " natural " race can develop,
but it shows us no persistency of a single racial type and a special civilization.
Instead of the deep gradations which divide the Fuegian, a kind of Bushman or
Hottentot, from the Inca of Peru, expert in many arts, rich; devoted to sun-
worship ; Oceania displays, in the domain of culture, only slight variations on
the same ground-theme. Its great problem is not the tranquil development of
local peculiarities, but the equalising effect of migration from one archipelago to
another, and ultimately from quarter to quarter of the earth.
The distribution of Malayo-Polynesian races over an area covering 210 degrees
of longitude and 80 of latitude, is an astounding fact. It gains in signiiicance
Outrigged boat, New Britain. (From a model in the Godeffroy collection, Leipzig. )
when we renlember that wide tracts of very deep ocean divide these islands, while
the islands are so small that even exploring navigators did not discover them
till late, and then with difficulty. No cause appeared too vast to explain such a
phenomenon, and we cannot be surprised that not only older inquirers like
Quiros, or seafaring men like Crozet and Dumont d'Urville, but even a man like
Broca ^ could admit the idea that in this island-world we have the remains of a
submerged continent. Even the hypothesis of a separate creation of races so
isolated has been brought into play here. But migrations of the islanders are
mentioned even by Forster and Cook ; and have been more and more recognised
as the great fact in the ethnography of the Pacific. Numerous indeed are the
records of accidental involuntary migrations. When Cook came to Watiu in
1777, his Tahitian companion Mai found there three fellow-countrymen, all that
were left of twenty, from Tahiti, 750 miles distant, who had been cast away twelve
years before. In 1825 Beechey found on Byam Martin Island forty men, women,
and children, the survivors of 150 from Matia, who some years before had been
caught in an unwontedly early monsoon, and driven 625 miles to Barrow Island ;
subsequently leaving this on account of its barrenness, and settling on Byam ,^
^ [Not to mention Darwin and Lyell.]
M
l62
THE HISTORY OF MAXKI^D
Martin. A remarkable point in this is that the course from Matia to Barrow
Island is against the trades. In 1816 Kotzebue found on Aur, one of the
Radack Islands, a native of Ulie, who had been cast away with three others
while fishing, and covered a distance of 1850 miles against the trades. Inhabit-
ants of Ulie were carried to the Marshall Islands also in 1857; Ralick islanders
to the Gilberts, Gilbert islanders to the Marshalls, and westward to the Carolines ;
and Finsch reports a more recent case of castaways from Jaluit or Bonham
Island to Faraulep in the western Carolines, a distance of 1500 nautical miles.
During his short stay on Yap, and then in Pelew, Miklouho-Maclay often met
Boat of the Mortlock Islands, with outrigger and sail of rush-matting. (After a model in the
Godeffroy collection. )
people who had been cast away on other islands and had returned. , Kubary, in
his account of the Pelew Islands, mentions as a well-known fact that the inhabit-
ants of the Carolines are often driven to the Philippine Islands. In every case
they make the island of Samar or the most southerly point of Luzon, just where
the northern equatorial current breaks on the island wall of the Philippines. On
the other hand, inhabitants of the Philippines seem never to have come to Pelew,
though plenty come from Celebes and the islands in the Celebes Straits.
Another region where people are often cast away is in and about the Fiji
Archipelago, its boundaries being indicated by Tikopia, Lifu, Savaii and Vavao.
Active as the regular intercourse may be between Tonga and Fiji, the presence
of numerous Tongan and Fijian half-breeds exactly on the windward side of the
Fiji Archipelago would suggest that people had been driven westwards, even had
THE RACES OF THE PACIFIC AND THEIR MIGRATIONS
163
we not clear evidence that they have been driven from Tonga and Savaii to the
still more westerly islands of the Banks group, to the New Hebrides, and the
Loyalty Islands. They appear even to have got to the central Solomon
Islands. It is when we come within the Melanesian groups that these movements
gain in interest, owing to the large number of Polynesians to be found there, or
the traces, often so clear, of Polynesian influence.
Boat of Niue, Savage Islands. (After a model in the Godeffroy collection.)
A third region is even more important by reason of its local connection with
the Polynesian legends of migrations. It embraces the Hervey or Cook Islands,
the Tubuai or Austral Islands, the Paumotu or Low Islands, and the Society
Boat of the Hermit Islands. (From the same).
Islands. To supplement the instances already given we may mention the
involuntary journey of Williams in a boat from Rarotonga to Tongatabu, and
that of several natives from Aitutaki to Niue ; in both, cases distances of a thousand
miles were traversed in a westerly direction. Those natives of Manihiki who were
driven by a storm to the Ellice group in 1861, and there spread the first
Christian teaching, accomplished a still longer course. Between the Society
Islands, especially Tahiti, and the Paumotu group, a particularly close connection
has been established by frequent castings-away both with and against the trades.
Cases have been known here also in which persons have been driven southward.
1 54
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
but never beyond the tropic, so that no connection has been formed with New
Zealand. Finally, we have evidence in involuntary journeys made from Tahiti to
Byam Martin and Bow Islands that, especially during the summer, it is possible for
vessels to be driven against trade winds and currents in an easterly direction,
that is to say in the direction in which the Easter Islanders must have reached their
remote land.
Reports about castaways in this direction from the continent of Asia or from
Wooden baler, New Zealand — one-sixth real size. (British Museum.)
Japan are more rare. Apart from some established historical cases we may here
refer to the repeated instances of persons being driven from Japan northward and
eastward to Lopatka, Kadjak, and Vancouver Islands, which are equally
confirmed by history. Even
' „ ~ ' ' " from China ships are said to
have been cast away on the
north-west coast of America.
Evidence of journeys in the
opposite direction is afforded
by articles of undoubted north-
west American origin which
come ashore on the coasts of
the Hawaiian Islands. With
the South American continent
there are no manifest relations,
although in higher latitudes
westerly winds and currents
lead towards South America,
while in equatorial regions
they are easterly and lead
away irom it. The only conclusions that are possible here, and will be later
investigated, are based upon the data of ethnography.
Even if we regard only the involuntary journeys, the Pacific Ocean appears no
longer as a watery desert where islanders live in seclusion ; but mutual relations
of the most varied kind, both between the islands, and between them and the
continents, become manifest. Castings-away are no exception but the rule and
take people in every direction. Ethnography has to take account of these casual
relations which in the long vista of years have stretched a dense network from
^/-7
Wooden baler, New Zealand — one-fifth real size. (British Museum.)
from
THE RACES OF THE PACIFIC AND THEIR MIGRATIONS
i6s
Wooden baler, New Guinea — one-fifth real size.
(British Museum.)
one land to another. She must give up the idea of any sharp separation
between the races of Oceania, and allowing all consideration to disunion and
peculiarity, must give its due to every cause which makes for union.
But this view is met also by the life and ways of the Oceanians, their mode
of thought, and their tradition. There is in them a pronounced migratory sense.
Journeys of many hundreds of miles are not seldom undertaken by them, either
for the purpose of falling upon the inhabitants of neighbouring islands and getting
heads for their canoe houses, or in order to meet on some appointed day of the
year for a general exchange of goods. The inhabitants of Yap, and Simbo, and
the Tongans are specially renowned for
voyages of this kind. The piratical
inhabitants of Biak also traverse hun-
dreds of miles in their canoes. Trade is
naturally a chief cause of roaming. The
fact that in the Polynesian islands it is
mainly carried on by the chiefs or on
their account can only be favourable to
the enterprises, since none but they have
either authority or knowledge to lead the greater expeditions. The Tongans,
who monopolised the trade between Fiji and Samoa, with the inhabitants of
Sikiyana, of Peleliu, and some others, are noted as genuine trading races. Division
of labour in trades leads of necessity to exchange. It is specially to be observed
that the higher development of any
industry, as of pottery in Bilibili, Teste,
or Moresby, all of them islands off
New Guinea, is always found to im-
prove all the appliances of travel and
transport, and thus especially to raise
navigation to a higher level. Political
disturbances again have created numer-
ous motives for migration. Attacks
of one island upon another, flight to
remote islands, are common occur-
rences. At the time of the Spanish
conquest the inhabitants of the Marianne Islands took refuge in the Carolines.
Tongans fleeing from a cannibal chief peopled the island of Pylstart or Ata ;
Kaumualii, when threatened by attack from Kamehameha, had a ship made
ready in Kauai, in order that he might fly with his family in time of danger to
one of the ocean islands. Lastly, too, hunger was a spur to migration, famines
being frequent. Constant contact with the sea has given birth to a spirit of
adventure for which the aristocratic constitution of society provides nourishment
and tools. The Tongans may well reckon as the Phoenicians of South Poly-
nesia ; Samoans and P"ijians never ventured upon the journey to Tonga except
in boats manned by Tongan seamen. Nor, moreover, are real wandering tribes
lacking. Lastly, we must not forget the low value placed upon human life
in all island countries with a tendency to over-population. Infanticide, human
sacrifices, cannibalism, a permanent state of war, are sufficient explanations of this,
and from the same root springs also the love of emigration.
Stick chart from the Marshall Islands.
Collection).
(Godeffroy
1 66 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Among no " natural " races has the science of seafaring reached so high an
average development as among the Polynesians and Melanesians. Most of the
tribes are genuine seamen. If we regard their remoteness from the great civilized
races of the Asiatic continent, the shipbuilding art stands as high among them as
among the Malays ; and we must further reflect that they were without iron.
Naturally here also local limitations produce inequalities in shipbuilding, as well
as in the extent of the voyages, and also in the migrations of the different races.
It is a fact that at the present day the Fijians seldom go beyond the bouijdaries
of their own group, while the Tongans, favoured by the wind, often come to them.
But the art of navigation, no less than that of shipbuilding, may undergo
alterations in the course of time. Fortunate voyages raise the spirit of
enterprise, bad luck depresses it. The Samoa group got its former name of the
Navigator Islands from the seafaring skill of its inhabitants ; this has now greatly
decreased. Many of the low islands are so poorly wooded that shipbuilding is
rendered difficult, and dependent on drift timber ; while at Port Moresby on the
New Guinea coast the Motus, having little wood, build as a rule no vessels.
They do not, however (like the Caribs in a well-known couplet), content them-
selves with " wishing they could," but draw upon their more expert neighbours
for them. Yet, on the other hand, the islanders of the Paumotu group, where
wood is also scarce, build larger and better vessels than the Marquesans. The
small area and poverty of their islands force them both to peaceable migrations
and to warlike expeditions of conquest, and this can only be done by sea.
Vessels of every description, from the simple raft and the sailing vessel with
outrigger, or the double canoe, are found in this region. We do not need to
notice the rafts of bamboo made by the Pelew Islanders for the navigation of an
inland lake, since opportunities for inland navigation are not usual throughout
the region ; but rafts are actually in use for coasting purposes. Among the
families whom Cook found in Dusky Bay there were no boats, only a single raft
made of tree-stems for putting people across. Next we come to boats made simply
of stems, which, being fastened together and planked over, become raft-like vessels.
Such boat-rafts have led to the erroneous idea that the New Caledonians, for
example, sailed the seas on rafts. As a matter of fact these people have only
a kind of rough raft, resting on two hollowed tree-stems, and carrying a mast
with a triangular mat-sail. The Kunai people have double canoes, and those of
very pretty work. The Loyalty Islands' canoes are inferior to these, but are
also double, with a platform, two triangular mat-sails, and oars 6 feet long, passing
through holes in the platform. A long oar serves for steering, and so they sail
to New Caledonia. At Hood Bay in New Guinea rafts are used resting on five
trunks ; on a single platform these carry as many as a hundred men and quantities
of goods. They carry one or two masts, a stone anchor, and a mat-sail.
It is not usual for single trunks to be used exclusively for seafaring ; but in
coast navigation and fishing they meet local requirements, even where large
regularly built vessels exist. We find them in Tahiti, under the name of huhu
or shells, usually sharp at one end and seldom holding more than two men.
But such is the development of boat-building, that the smallest boats are, where
necessary, built with great care in several pieces. On Waituhi the Paumotu
Islanders have a great number of small boats, put together of coco-palm wood,
1 6 feet long at most, capable of being carried by two persons and of carrying two
THE RACES OF THE PACIFIC AND THEIR MIGRATIONS 167
or three ; they have pointed pieces specially fixed on fore and aft, an outrigger
and two recurved paddles.
The Tahitians build their boats of several pieces, for the very good reason
that large timber, such as the Maoris obtain from the Kauri pine, does not grow
in their island. In the Society Islands, elegant double canoes, known as " twins,"
are made by patting together two single stems, which must exactly match.
The kabekel of the Pelew Islands is a vessel between 60 and 70 feet long, usually
hewn out of one large tree-stem, and pulling as many as forty paddles. Its beam
and depth are very small for its great length. The entire Vessel is merely a
hollowed-out keel, supported in the water by the outrigger attached to one side.
A kind of deck made of bamboo is arranged amidships, on which the leader takes
his place, and the baggage is packed.
These single-tree craft afford the basis also for the larger built ships. The
keel of these consists of a stem hollowed out by means of fire, or, in the bigger
vessels, of several. Large ships are found chiefly in Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, and
New Zealand ; and the number of boats is correspondingly large. In Tahiti,
Forster saw a fleet of 159 large double canoes and 70 smaller craft. The small
Ones in many cases travel very fast, and serve as despatch-boats to the larger.
The tree or trees intended for a ship will be felled to the recital of religious
sentences, and then hollowed by means of fire. While many of the natives are
qualified for this task, the actual building is in the hands of a privileged class ;
so closely were the interests of state and society once bound up with this art
and mystery. Even to the present day in Fiji the carpenters, whose chief work
is shipbuilding, form a special caste. They bear the high-sounding title of " the
king's craftsmen " and have the privileges of real chiefs. These highly-honoured
artisans carry on their trade of shipbuilding with particular care. Planks are
attached to the keel, stern and bow provided with carved ornaments, sails and
ropes are all finished and fitted by special workmen, and the outriggers prepared
by others. Everything is done according to old tradition ; the laying of the keel,
the finishing of the whole, the launching, all take place with religious ceremonies
and festivities. Tangaroa was the patron of shipmen, and they bore his worship
all over the Ocean. Even the gods themselves like to build ships, and undertake
daring voyages.
The Fijian ships long held the first place among the craft of the Pacific
islands. When Cook first visited Tonga in 1772, he found Fijians there who
had brought a Tongan of high rank to his own island in their ship. The Tongan
vessels at that time were clumsy compared with those of Fiji, and for that reason
they accepted this with its sails as a gift. They have only altered the Fijian
model to the extent of cleverly improving the accuracy and fineness with which
various portions are executed. These Fijian vessels with Tongan improvements
belong to a type spread throughout Micronesia, in which, by reversing the sail,
bow and stern are convertible. Thus Fijian chiefs took to employing by prefer-
ence carpenters from Tonga; which gave rise to the belief that the Tongans
built their vessels in Fiji for the sake of the better wood. The New Caledonian
ships are like the Samoan, but less well built and slower. The vessels of the
Loyalty Islands are also clumsy ; a fact the more remarkable since both these
groups contain admirable material in their great pines. In the Solomon Islands
shipbuilding has attained a high level, but here too there are gradations. The
1 68 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
most elegant and the lightest craft in that archipelago are built in Ulakua. In
the more westerly islands the war-vessels are extraordinarily rich with fantastic
ornaments, festoons of feathers and bast, coloured red and yellow, shells, and so
forth. In New Ireland the boats differ materially from those of New Hanover;
they are equally made of a single tree stem, but are not so long and not curved
in the gunwale. The boat of New Britain is mostly made from one stem, but
has often a low strake on each side. It is on the average larger than that of New
Ireland, and has a high narrow beak at each end.
The larger boats of New Guinea are from i6 to 20 feet long, and from
2 to 2\ wide. The hull, made in one piece, is hollowed out from a trunk which
must have no flaw. It is not more than half an inch thick, and has cross-ties to
keep it from warping. Both ends curve upwards and are strengthened with
wooden posts, of which that in the stem rises high and is adorned with arabesques
or painted. To raise the gunwale above the water line they employ the ribs of
sago-palm leaves after the fashion of the Alfurs. These are by preference inter'
laced, and then being attached like tiles to the cross-ties, form a water-tight ''v^
surface. Over the gunwale are fastened two light cross-pieces, which project about
5 feet, and at the end of which is another piece of wood, bent at right angles, just
touching the surface of the water, and sticking into a strong boom, which is as
light as cork and serves as a float. Amidships on the cross-tinibers a square
cabin of bamboo is erected, sheltered against injury from weather by a small roof ■ ■
of coco-palm leaves. All other kinds of craft, from the raft upward, are found in
New Guinea. The ornamentation is rich, especially of the war-canoes.
In Micronesia, where the vessels stand next in quality to those of Fiji and
Tonga, we do not find the double canoes common among the Polynesians. Even
the great vta^r-amlais, holding sixty to eighty persons, have only an outrigger.
Differences can be noticed between one island and another. The Pelew canoes
differ from all those in use in the South Seas by being very low in proportion to
their length and sail-area. For this reason they are not adapted for such long
voyages as the inhabitants of Yap, or those of Mackenzie and the Ralick Islands,
undertake, but for short journeys they are extraordinarily effective. The light
and sharp kaep, driven by a large three-cornered sail, slips over the water like
lightning in the most gentle breeze. Heavy seas find no resistance in these
canoes, they lift them and divide on the sharp angle of their stems, and do not
check their way. The Micronesian fashion of adorning boats with bundles of the
split feathers of the frigate-bird, and avoiding carved work, comes from Polynesia.
An important element of the Polynesian or Melanesian vessel is the outrigger.
This is shaped and fitted on in various ways, and is of various sizes. Light
durable woods are used for this purpose ; in the eastern districts mostly Pisonia,
which, even in the Paumotu Group, reaches a height of 65 feet, while in the west .;.
it is generally Hibiscus, as light as cork, or an Erythrina. As a rule the outrigger
is fastened to the vessel by two booms 5 to 6 feet in length, the forward one
straight and stiff, the after one bent and elastic. Among the Fijians many kinds
of craft are distinguished solely according to their outriggers.
The sail — there is never more than one — is three-cornered, composed of
plaited mats, or woven from the bast of the leaf-stem of the coco-palm, bent on a
frame of bamboos, and attached to the mast by a rope passing over or around j;
the mast-head. It cannot be reefed. As an article of trade it is in demancl
THE RACES OF THE PACIFIC AND THEIR MIGRATIONS
169
proportioned to its importance. In large vessels the steering oar is 20 feet
long, the blade over 6 feet, requiring two or three men to handle it in a heavy sea.
The ordinary paddles are frequently the least practical part of t^ie gear. The
blade is lancet-shaped, often decorated at the pointed end, carved about the
handle with figures of animals or other ornaments. Fancy paddles are inlaid
with mother-of-pearl. Where they are as strong as in the Solomon Islands, they
can be used on occasion for clubs. Even the balers, with their often elegantly
carved forms, show the value which is attached to the humblest nautical imple-
ments. The balers of the Admiralty Islands, with their single horizontal bar for
a handle, were placed by Rear-Admiral Strauch, from a practical point of view,
above those made
in Europe. Pre-
serves, capable of
keeping for a long
time, are prepared
for voyages from
pandanpsAnd bread-
fruit ; cocoa - nuts
also serve as pro-
vision, and their
shells can be filled
with water. In the
large war boats the
number of rowers
far exceeds 1 00.
Forster speaks of
144 oarsmen, Wil-
son of 300 men in
a single boat. The
time of the paddles
is given by singing.
When a number of
boats are sailing to-
gether, one man
stands in the stern of the leading vessel and signals the course with a bunch of
dry grass.
The taking of proper bearings is of double importance in this ocean, in which
the individual islands are often so far apart and so low-lying that one is astonished
that they were ever found. Many islands in the Pacific were discovered for the
first time in the present century. The islanders are keen observers of the stars,
and have names for a good list of them. They distinguish eight quarters of the
heaven and winds to match. In their conception of the world the ocean is
imagined as being everywhere full of islands, which helps to explain their daring
voyages. They even inscribe their geographical knowledge upon maps, but
while on. these the bearings are to some extent correct, the distances are given
very inaccurately. In the Ralick group the preparation of maps from small
straight and bent sticks, representing routes, currents, and islands, is a secret art
among the chiefs. The Marshall Islanders also possess a map of their own, made
Boat of the Luzon 1 agals.
(From a model m Dr. Hans Meyer s Collection,
Leipzig. )
lyo
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
up of little sticks and stones, showing the whole group (p. 165). On their greater
enterprises they go to sea in a thoroughly systematic way ; the longer voyages of
from 500 to 1000 nautical miles are undertaken only in squadrons comprising
at least fifteen canoes, commanded by a chief who has one or more pilots to
advise him. Without compass, chart, or lead, and with but limited knowledge
of the stars, these men contrived to make their distant point. On their voyages
they steadily observe the angle made by the canoe with the run of the sea
caused by the trade wind, which, north of the equator, blows steadily from the
north-east. The use of this run, which remains constant even with shifting
winds, has been brought by the native pilots to great refinement. The ocean
currents are also
no less well
known to them
by experience,
so that they are
able to take this
also into con-
sideration in lay-
ing their course.
As a general rule,
in order to get
the largest pos-
sible field of view,
the squadron pro-
ceeds in line in
which the indi-
vidual canoes are
so widely separ-
ated that they
can only com-
municate by signal. By this progress on a wide front they avoid the danger of
sailing past the island they are looking for. During the night the squadron
closes in. This whole style of navigation contradicts the supposition that before
the invention of the compass only coasting voyages were undertaken.
Polynesians and Micronesians often ship on board European vessels, where
they prove themselves, apart from their limited physical strength, excellent sea-
men. The Hawaiians or Kanakas, who are often tried in the whale fishery, are,
according to Wilkes, skilful men, but not suited for service on board a man-of-
war. They are more serviceable in small than in large parties, being very fond of
putting their work upon some one else. They are timid about going aloft.
Their best place is at the oar, but even so, when going through the surf, they
prefer to jump overboard and swim. On board a man-of-war they find difficulty
in accustoming themselves to. the word of command, but, on the other hand, in
whaling ships they show themselves willing, hard-working, and fearless.
In the eastern districts the navigation of the Malays connects itself with that
of the Micronesians. Their distant expeditions for purposes of trade or piracy,
which ultimately became racial migrations, were carried on in outrigo-ed or double
boats with triangular reed or mat sails, and to this very day many of the Malayan
Sumatran /raAa. (From model in the Munich Ethnographical Museum.)
THE RACES OF THE PACIFIC AND THEIR MIGRATIONS 171
prahus of recognised excellence have not an ounce of iron about them. Inland
races in Malacca, in Borneo, Luzon, and other islands, have no vessels at all, and
there are some fishing tribes who get along with bamboo rafts (so-called cata-
marans) after the Chinese model, and dug-out canoes. The races who have been
most operative in the history of this widespread group, whether they be genuine
Malays or Alfurs, Tagals or Goramese, are distinguished by their intimate
acquaintance with the sea, to which in great measure they owe their conspicuous
position. These are the races of whom it has been said that they would never
build a house on dry land if they could find a place in the water. Their skill
in navigation is sufficient to meet even European requirements. The prahus
belonging to the once piratical village of Sounsang in Sumatra on the Palcmbang
coast, carried the post between Palembang and Muntok for years, across the
tempestuous Banca Straits ; and never within the memory of man were these
light vessels seriously behind time. The Government of the Dutch Indies employ
none but natives, mostly pure Malays, on board their large fleet of /;'«^M-cruisers ;
though there are many Chinese and Arabs among the freighters. The Malayan
prahu was originally a somewhat shallow boat with one sail, and having a keel.
The most renowned shipbuilders are the Ke islanders, whose boats, built of
wood fastened with wooden bolts and rattan, sail through the whole New Guinea
Archipelago to Singapore ; and next to them the Badjos and Bugises of South
Celebes, and the Malays of Billiton, Palembang, and Acheen. The Malagasies
must have lost much of the art of shipbuilding, though they once suffered it to
reach their island. Their usual boat is a " dug-out " with round bottom and no
keel, provided with outriggers when at sea — the Hova boats have no outriggers —
carrying large square or lateen sails made of mats of palm-straw, or of cloth.
In another kind of boat the floor consists of one hewn tree-stem, upon which the
slim craft, most elegant in form, is built up with strakes hardly more than an
inch wide. The sharp beak runs out in a kind of neck, raised high, and adorned
with peculiar carvings ; while the vessel tapers aft to a narrow stern, also elevated
and similarly ornamented. These boats also have outriggers, are 20 to 30 feet
long, and hardly 3 feet wide.
Their active sea-trafiic is one of the most interesting features in the life of
the Malays. It is no mere coasting-trade that is carried on by some expert
navigators among the races of the Archipelago, notably the true Malays of
Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, and the colonists from thence in Borneo
and other islands. They are not afraid of competition with the Chinese, whom
they have obviously taken for their model, formidable as these are in trade ;
they act mostly as clever middlemen to them, pushing into the interior of the
islands, where they are preferred by the native authorities, and also reaching
farther eastward than the Chinese. They make use, moreover, of European
communications. Piracy has never succeeded in paralysing this native traffic,
whichr indeed has known how to come to terms with it ; nor, although not a year
passes without some prahu from Goram being fallen upon by the inhospitable
Papuans of New Guinea, does this injure it either, any more than it hinders the
people of Tidor from visiting those coasts, abounding in slaves and trepang, with
whole fleets. Entire populations have been, as it were, rendered fluid by means
of trade — above all the Malays of Sumatran origin, proverbially clever, keen,
omnipresent ; and the equally smart but treacherous Bugises of Celebes, who are
172 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
to be found in every spot from Singapore to New Guinea, and have recently
immigrated in large numbers into Borneo at the instance of local chiefs, bo
great is their influence that they are allowed to govern themselves according to
their own laws ; and they are so conscious of their own strength that there has
been no lack of attempts to make themselves independent. The Acheenese once
held a similar position. After the decline of Malacca, which the Sumatran
Malays had made an emporium, there were, at the beginning of the seventeenth
century, several decades during the turning period of the world's history when
Acheen was the busiest roadstead of the far east.
All things being taken together, the capabilities of the Malayo-Polynesians
as navigators are pre-eminent. It is only because this estimate of them has not
always been taken that their distribution assumed the look of a riddle, though in
fact it was no riddle whatsoever.
With the dispersion of the Polynesian races over the islands of the ocean,
first through storms and currents, then by voluntary migration, was associated in
later times the traffic in men, called into existence by the growing demand for
labour in regions of economic progress, like Hawaii, Samoa, or Queensland. In
its beginnings it was indistinguishable from kidnapping. Men and boys were
dragged from their homes by force, or decoyed by false representations, and
carried to districts where they had never wanted to be. The regulations framed
later by various governments remained for the most part ineffective for want of
officials to look after them. Even when the planters were compelled to send
their Kanakas back at the end of three years, captains often landed them, for
their own convenience, on some island where the poor creatures had never lived,
and where they were ill-treated and often killed by the inhabitants. Since the
arrival of Europeans, too, the decrease of the population has caused shiftings in
most islands. Immigrants from a wide area, extending from New Zealand to
the Marquesas, have come to Hawaii. On the other hand Hawaii is one of the
groups whence native missionaries have propagated' Christianity far into the
Melanesian region.
In the world of Polynesian mythology and legend we constantly come across
migrations undertaken from the most various motives. Everything important or
peculiar has been brought over sea ; the wide horizon of the ocean, no less than
the narrow one of the island-world, gleams with a divine light upon these
migration-legends ; remoter islands are half-way stations between this world and
the next. To quote Bastian : " Once upon a time, after a long voyage, a ship was
cast away upon a strange coast. It looked very strange to the new-comers,
offering the appearance of an uncanny spectre-land : for they walked through
trees and houses without feeling them. A figure met them and told them that
they were in the realm of spirits. They followed his injunction to return home at
once, and were driven along quickly by a favouring wind. But they had only
time to relate how they had gone astray before they departed this life. 'Since
then that deadly coast has been avoided." On Raiatea it was told of Tangaroa
that after peopling the world he changed himself into a canoe, which, after
bringing men along, and preparing the red of the sky from their blood, furnished
the model for the temple. Assistance in the erection of the islands was rendered
by casual comers, which would give them an additional ground for a title to it.
When Savage Island was raised out of the sea, two men who swam over from
THE RACES OF THE PACIFIC AND THEIR MIGRATIONS 173
Tonga put it in order ; and the steepness of its coast on one side is ascribed to
the carelessness of the one who worked there. Others think that these helpers
stamped the islands out of the sea. The Hawaiian account is simpler : When
Hawaii had been hatched from the sea-bird's egg, some people came from Tahiti,
a man and his wife, with a dog, a pig, and a hen in their canoe. Ulu introduced
the bread-fruit which is named after him, and his brother the cloth made from the
bast of the mulberry tree. The gods, who were originally the sole inhabitants
of these islands, were approached to obtain leave to settle. The mother-country,
" Hawaiki," soon came to be regarded as a land of the other world — a spirit-land ;
what descended from it was hallowed. Tamatekapua, the son of the Clouds,
brought Rongomai to New Zealand as its tutelary god from the spirit-land ; and
there, too, was preserved the stone idol brought from Hawaiki, Matua-Tonga, the
son of the south, as the Kumaras' god. If we find tradition bringing white
priests and their gods to Hawaii, we are led to see other relations, namely with
the west, the direction of them being indicated by the casting away on these
shores of people from Eastern Asia.
Traditions are not kept alive by memory only. Political and social relations
follow to this day the lines of old connections which link together island groups
far distant from each other. Legends of migration survive in individual villages
and families, where the old home is still remembered, and the connection with it
often bound closer by special reverence. The Tongans were long in the habit
of respectfully greeting the people of Tokelau, as being their ancestors. Men
from Ulie in the Carolines, who visited the island of Guam in the Mariannes in
1788, followed the roads from old descriptions preserved in songs ; since then the
intercourse has become brisker, and at the present day the Caroline islanders
collect coco-nuts in the Mariannes on behalf of foreign traders. Political
connection, again, is often bound up with objects that have been either left behind
or brought along. The Uluthi Islands are subject to Yap, because a great
destruction, by means of an inundation of the sea, would take place if an axe
belonging to one of the gods, which is buried in the latter island, were to be dug
up. When these lines of attraction or attachment intersect, quarrels cannot be
far off. Thus the Samoans relate that one of their chiefs fished up Rotuma and
planted coco-palm on it. But in a later migration the chief Tukunua came that
way with a canoe full of men and quarrelled with him about the prior right of
possession. The Maoris found another ground for quarrelling : having come
from little islands where land was scarce, every man laid claim to estates in New
Zealand that were too large.
The scantiness of migration legends in Melanesia has been regarded as only
a part of the general dearth of tradition which is a Melanesian characteristic.
Fiji offers us unwonted examples of legends of inland migrations, directed from
the north-west towards the south-east, which in still later times was uninhabited.
No doubt this bears upon the fact that the home of souls lies across the sea, and
that all the spots whence souls go, that is swim, to the next world, face north-west.
If, out of all these innumerable wanderings to and fro to which various causes
have given rise, one group stands out by reason of the great extent of its
ethnographic operation — that, namely, which has occupied the region between
New Zealand and Hawaii, Fiji and Easter Island, with a strikingly homogeneous
population — that is but part of the result of the great migratory movement in
174 THE HISTORY OF MANKLXD
the Pacific. It is quite wrong to regard this as a single event, or as an exception.
It is rather one case of the rule ; for none of these races was ever at rest. They
wandered far and near, colonising consciously and intentionally, like any
Greeks or Phoenicians. In any case this last series of great migrations and
settlements is a single existing fact belonging to that stage in the development of
culture which we call the stone age. For that reason it is not easy to understand ;
we have no means of comparison with similar achievements. The area which this
colonising activity has rendered productive far exceeds the empire of Alexander
or of Rome. In the domain of annexation it was the greatest performance
previous to the discovery of America.
It was with astonishment that the close connection of the languages of
Oceania was first recognised. Just as little could the general ethnographical
similarity be overlooked ; the only difficulty was to find therein a scale of affinity,
still more of remoteness, in point of time. There can be no doubt that from
New Guinea to Easter Island we are in presence of essentially one civilization.
A special branch of it has developed in the narrower region of Polynesia. The
elements of this civilization are distributed over the islands with little uniformity.
We cannot ignore the possibility that closer affinities are indicated . by . the
distribution of particular articles, but hitherto the right way to identify them has
hardly been taken, least of all by those who imagine they see in New. Zealand the
point whence Polynesian migrations had set out. For the distribution of certain
weapons upon which this hypothesis rests in the first instance is everywhere so
uneven and capricious that conclusions of very wide import cannot be based upon
it. That the home of the Maui myth appears to be in New Zealand ; that the
title Ariki is here applied to priests, but in the rest of Polynesia to temporal
chiefs ; and that New Zealand alone can be the home of the articles made of
jade which are scattered throughout Polynesia, none of these are facts from which
we can draw the important conclusion that New Zealand was the point of
dispersion.
It is solely upon the basis of the traditions that the view of the great majority
of students is at present to the effect that not only the New Zealanders but also
other Polynesians migrated to their present abodes from some southerly point in
equatorial Polynesia. The Maori tradition is that they came to their island from
a place called Hawaiki ; they seem to distinguish a larger and smaller, or a nearer
and further Hawaiki. " The seed of our coming is from Hawaiki, the seed of our
nourishing, the seed of mankind." This name, Hawaiki, is cognate with a whole
number of Polynesian place names : Savaii in the Samoa group, Hawaii in the
group of that name, Apai in the Tonga Islands, Evava in the Marquesas and
others. Savaii, one of the Samoa or Navigator Islands, has the greatest pro-
bability on its side. As Hawaii it forms also the starting-point for emigration to
Raiatea and Tahiti, while the legends of the Marquesas and Hawaii refer back to
Tahiti. There is a song in which Rarotonga, Waerota, Waeroti, Parima, and
Manono are mentioned as neighbouring islands to Tahiti. The Rarotongans
themselves have the tradition that they come from Awaiki. Waerota and
Waeroti are now unknown, but Parima and Manono are small islets of the Samoan
group, the inhabitants of which say they came from Savaii. Wild dogs like those
of New Zealand, the same kind of rats, the sweet potato, the taro, the same kind
of gourd, are found in the Navigator Islands. Maori traditions again which call
THE RACES OF THE PACIFIC AND THEIR MIGRATIONS 175
Rarotonga the way to Hawaiki, and say that some of the New Zealand boats were
built in Rarotonga, are equally in favour of the journey having been made first
from the somewhat mythical Hawaiki to that island which no doubt is the
" nearer Hawaiki " of tradition. It is possible that the larger part of the Maoris
are of Rarotongan origin.
The songs of the New Zealanders tell us even now the reason for their
emigration and their farther wandering. A chief by the name of Ngahue was
driven to flight by a civil war which devastated Hawaiki. After a long journey
he reached New Zealand and returned to Hawaiki with pieces of greenstone and
the bones of a giant-bird. Other legends give him the name Kup6 — the weaker
party in the war that was still going on among the islanders tnigrated to New
Zealand with him. The tradition still preserves the names of the double canoes
in which the voyage was accomplished. The legend still recalls how the seeds of
sweet potatoes, taro, gourds, karaka berries, dogs, parrots, and rats, and sacred
Carved boat from New Zealand ; actual length 8 ft. s in. (Berlin Museum of Ethnology. )
red paint were put on board the canoes, and how, as the emigrant's fleet departed,
an old chief exhorted to peace. Nor is the storm forgotten which got up in the
night and scattered the fleet, nor the doubt whether they should steer east or
west, nor the little quarrels which arose among the crews of individual canoes
chiefly on account of the women. The canoes were repaired on islands as they
went along. Finally, what was left of the wanderers reached New Zealand in
the summer time, and even before the chiefs had decided on the place to land,
certain families landed where pleasant bays smiled upon them, all in the North
Island. It was not till later that the Middle and South Islands received their
population. Even to this day the north is called the Lower and the south the
Upper Island. The various tribal groups trace their origin to their canoes, the
names of which they have preserved, and equally the names of the chiefs and
the exact spot where the canoe landed. One canoe sailed round the North Cape,
another made its way through Cook's Straits ; these two brought the first settlers
to the west coast. Wharekauri or Chatham Island, some sixty nautical miles
distant from New Zealand, must have been peopled at the same time.
A second starting-point is indicated by tradition in the Tonga or Friendly
Islands. The inhabitants of Nukahiva in the Marquesas make their forefathers
come with bread-fruit and sugar-cane from Vavau in the Tonga Archipelago.
But among the inhabitants of the southern part of that archipelago the Hawaiki
legend appears again, although language and customs rather point to Tahiti. In
this connection we may remember that in Raiatea also there was once a locality
176
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
(i) God of dances in the form of a double paddle, Easter Island; (2)
toothed club from Tutuila ; (3) ancient club from Tonga ; (4, 5) short
clubs from Easter Island. {Berlin Museum of Ethnology.)
designated Hawaii. The
Hawaii or Sandwich'
Islands offer the same
difficulty. Language and
customs connect their
inhabitants with Tahiti
to which, as also to the
Marquesas, Hawaiian
travel myths point. On
the other hand, place
names show a lively re-
collection of the Samoa
group. Tahiti seems to
have sent forth emigrants
to Hawaii, Nukahiva,
Rarotonga ; yet the ex-
plicit tradition of the
Rarotongans makes their
island to have been
settled almost simultan-
eously from Samoa and
Tahiti. But then from
Rarotonga again came
the colonists for the
Gambler and Austral
Islands, with Rapa, and
also a part of those who
made the great journey
to New Zealand.
We feel some scruple
about making the name
Hawaiki indicate one
single island of a small
archipelago. Strearns of
emigration are supposed
to have poured forth
from it, at the most vari-
ous epochs, to Hawaii as
well as to New Zealand,
to Tahiti no less than
to Tonga. Why just
that one and that only?
No doubt the name pos-
sesses a general, and like
other place - names, a
mythical significance,
wherewith many of the
attributes of the legend
THE RACES OF THE PACIFIC AND THEIR MIGRATIONS
177
can more easily be combined than with that somewhat forced geographical inter-
pretation. We are from the first warned to be cautious by the fact that this
legend of Hawaiki is one of the few legends related by a race about its own
origin, which science has nevertheless thoroughly accepted. At all tiipes we
are strongly averse to such traditions, since they are never free from mythical
elements. The geographical position of Hawaiki is not absolutely certain in all
traditions ; but rather shows a
considerable fluctuation. It even
turns up as a spirit land, as the
land of the West, where the souls
go with the sun into the under
world, as the land of souls, and
so as the land of forefathers, the
ancestral land. We can now
understand the belief of the
Marquesans that their entire
country once lay in this Hawaiki,
and came up from it. Simi-
larly it is the land where man-
kind once lost their immortality,
and from spirits became men.
Numerous place - names show
that a name may recur widely
without actual transmission.
Lastly, the fluctuations in in-
dividual traditions must not be
overlooked. If a Tahitian ori-
gin is universally assumed by
the Hawaiians, traditions also
point to the Marquesas and
Samoa, and from the Marquesas
the threads lead back to Tahiti,
Samoa, and even Tonga. The
old Hawaiians seem by " Tahiti "
to have understood strangers in
general. The Maori ^ legends
also testify that not one immigration only, but several, took place from the north-
ward. A much later arrival is emphasised in all the legends. We know therefore
why those wanderers are alleged to have found in these islands aboriginal inhabitants,
of whom the geological record of New Zealand, and its fossils, have so far revealed
no trace. At any rate, the fact, still contested, that the dog occurs not as the
companion of man, but as a beast of prey, points to another civilization than that
which met the first Europeans who visited the Maoris. The legend of the
various immigrations also takes various forms. In New Zealand the new comers
find footmarks, which they recognise as those of one of their companions who had
been thrown out of his boat. One legend speaks of fair natives, and of the rise
^ Maori "native " in opposition to Pakeha " stranger " occurs in the same sense in other parts of Polynesia,
in the forms Maoi and Maoli,
N
Thakombau, the last king of Fiji. (From a photograph in the
possession of Herr Max Buchner. )
1/8 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
of a darker stock through mixture with older inhabitants ; Hkewise of men who
lived on these islands " after the great monster," and who left great shell heaps
behind them. We reach quite mythical ground with the Pua-Reingas, who lived
underground and could not be conquered till a chief made a hole in the earth
by which the sunbeams entered. Less frequently, for instance in Rarotonga,
Mangarewa, the Kingsmill or Austral groups, the legend is decided as to their
being uninhabited.
The epochs of the Polynesian migrations must have been very various. They
took place so long as there were any Polynesians in the Pacific. In the case of
the colonisation of Rarotonga, tradition demands thirty generations, in that of the
Maoris fifteen to twenty. On Nukahiva indeed we hear of eighty-eight generations ;
and there are sixty-seven ancestors of Kamehameha ; but to these figures no credit
can be given. We are entitled, however, to assign no great antiquity to Polynesian
colonisation. The people have not had time to develop any marked peculiarities
in culture. The date of their arrival in New Zealand and the other places of
immigration can only be a matter of some centuries back. The settlement of
Tahiti no doubt falls earlier. Many isolated casual migrations may have preceded
the greater deliberate movements. But in any case we must clearly grasp the
fact that there was a period during which the sending forth of colonies was
enjoined by the increase in population, and was rendered possible by the political
organisation. In the newly occupied territories too, the development of the new
populations began upon a higher level, and then fell off ; upon the remoter
islands like New Zealand, Hawaii, Easter Island, where disturbing influence pressed
upon them less, they retained the most traces of a past higher condition. The
decadence of the Maoris affords a conspicuous instance of a rapid impoverishment
in the advantages of culture. The larger states split up into small communities,
on a mutual footing of feud and extermination, having lost the consciousness of
a stronger cohesion, with its power to maintain culture. The character of the
people lost in demeanour and discipline, becoming ever more savage and cruel.
Hand in hand with this went belief in their old native gods, and the transforma-
tion of these into demons of the forest and the sea, cruel spectral caricatures,
distorted at pleasure. A superstitious cult of the individual took the place of the
state or national religion. They went back even in the arts ; even in Cook's time
works of former generations were preserved as sacred objects, which they had lost
the knowledge and the capacity to produce.
These migrations were not confined within the limits of Polynesia. Colonies
went forth into all the Melanesian groups ; where we obtain a general impression
of a permeation with Polynesian elements from the eastward. On the small
islands they hold their ground ; on the larger they were merged in the mass of
the resident population, but not without leaving their traces. Ethnographical
varieties become clear, if we remember that one or the other element has been the
bearer of them. Thus in the territory of the New Hebrides and Solomon Islands,
where " mother -right " prevails, Polynesian colonists have brought in " father-
right " ; in this case a revolutionary institution. Echoes of New Zealand meet
us in the visible speech of New Caledonian architecture, in the clubs of Eastern
New Guinea, and in other cases. In Micronesia, Polynesian affinities are yet
more frequent. There many customs remind us with especial force of the western
Polynesians and at the same time of the Fijians. Not only, however, have
THE RACES OF THE PACIFIC AND THEIR MIGRATIONS 179
Polynesians made their way to Melanesia, but we have historical proof of
Melanesian colonies in Polynesia.
Nothing indicates more clearly the frequency and extent of these migrations
than the very small number of totally uninhabited islands. These vikings of the
Pacific contrived to discover even small and remote islets. In the whole of the
Pacific there is not one island of any size of which it was left to Europeans to
demonstrate the habitability. Many of them were only visited periodically for
their palms or the fishing ; but these were in all cases certain to be less well suited
than the others for habitation. Of the little islets which rise from a common base
in a reef, and lie almost flush with the sea, forming an atoll, often only one in a
group, the largest or most productive, is inhabited. Indubitable traces of former
habitation show that the uninhabited regions did not extend beyond their present
boundaries. These are proved to lie in those central Pacific Sporades which hold
so important a place between the groups of Eastern Polynesia and Hawaii, such
as the Guano Islands of the Central Pacific, the Penrhyn group, the most south-
easterly islets of the Paumotu group, and others. Norfolk Island is the only one
in the Southern Pacific which can be pointed out as having from its natural
conditions and endowments deserved to be permanently settled ; but in the angle
it makes with Australia and Polynesia, it lies far from all migrations, and it has
an area of not more than 1 8 square miles.
Local arrangement breaks up the wide district into geographical groups
distinguished by ethnographic characteristics : Melanesia is contiguous to New
Guinea ; north of it, separated by a band poor in islands, we find Micronesia over
against the Moluccas and Philippines to the eastward. Polynesia joins on in the
form of a great triangular space outflanking the eastern side of the two districts
already named both to south and to north, and is divided by a tract of sea with
few islands into a western group of Tonga, Samoa, and Tokelau with Fiji, and
a more extended eastern group reaching from Hawaii to New Zealand.^
In view of the many internal differences in the populations, and considering
the distinction, great but difficult, of accurate demarcation between Polynesians and
Melanesians, there is little purpose in dividing off smaller groups by physical
characteristics. These can at most be suggested. It is just possible that a sharper
racial distinction between west and east Polynesians may be emphasised.
According to Finsch, among all the Polynesians the Hawaiians have the greatest
similarity with the Samoans. The Maoris are next most closely connected ; this
nearer relationship is confirmed by the language. This seems to be a similar
phenomenon to that of the deepening of the lighter skin tint of the Malays into
a darker as we go eastward. Confining ourselves to tangible objects, we will now
make an attempt to divide the area of Polynesian culture into smaller districts.
In this, as might be expected, the large influential groups of Samoa and Tonga
show an affinity with the neighbouring Fiji. This strikes us most clearly in our
ethnographical museums by the abundance and variety of the wonderfully carved
clubs. Tonga shows linguistic peculiarities, shares with Fiji in respect of bows
and pottery, and builds its vessels differently from Samoa. In the Harvey Islands
to the eastward, the art of carving has been absorbed in the preparation of
hatchets with pretty handles rich in symbolic forms. The Society Isles show
' [I leave this as in the original, though it appears from the map that a line drawn from Hawaii to New
Zealand passes through the Tonga group.]
i8o THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
agreement with Hawaii in their feather work and axes. In the Marquesas, oars
as well as axes and dancing stilts are carved with conventional ornaments, each
of which has its name and its significance, reminding us somewhat of the Easter
Islanders' writing. The Hawaii or Sandwich Islands are distinguished by fine
feather masks and helmets, and have weapons with wooden handles, set with
sharks' teeth like knives. These, however, find their richest development in the
Gilbert or Kingsmill Island. New Zealand, which has the most peculiar climate
of any region inhabited by Polynesians, is the culminating point and the horn of
plenty in regard to art development in Oceania. Its favourite manufacture is small
hand clubs, called mere, made like many ornamental objects from jade. Also
richly carved sticks, objects in greenstone, symbols of rank in the shape of oars,
ships, pillars for houses. But on the whole it preserves agreement with the rest
of Polynesia. One might conclude that its settlement did not take place till late,
but that from the remoteness of these islands a tranquil development resulted
with the maintenance of many old notions of form. If the Maori dialect is in
many respects richer and more primitive than other Polynesian dialects, this may
be ascribed to the more plentiful contact of the tribes over wider spaces. The
most unique existence is that of Easter Island. It represents among the islands
what the naturalist would call a " sport." No part of the earth shows the power
of isolation with more impressive clearness than this little spot of some 50 square
miles. The most trustworthy descriptions draw attention to the departure of the
Easter Islanders from the pure Polynesian type. Darker coloured skin and small
eyes point perhaps to an admixture of Melanesian blood. In a population which
by the highest estimate reached 3000, and before the days of small-pox and
kidnapping were reckoned by the first French missionary at not more than 1500,
even small admixtures would be of importance. But these peculiarities, not very
significant under any circumstances, disappear when we look at the special ethno-
graphical points, positive as well as negative. Above all other Polynesians the
Easter Islanders possess the art of pottery ; also an obsolete writing, the power of
executing human figures in wood-carving, and of making gigantic stone images ;
they also build stone huts. But on the other hand they have not the more artistic
forms of axe, bow, and spear. "
Locally and ethnographically the Micronesians stand next to the Malay
Archipelago and East Asia ; from a physical point of view they display many of
the Mongoloid marks with especial clearness. In their ethnographic relations
they seem to be a race which has come down from a higher stage. In social and
political institutions — in their money, their looms, their navigation — they show
traces of a richer development of the external life. But a further motive must be
sought in the less secluded character of the entire Micronesian development, upon
which the neighbourhood of Asia has worked both advantageously and disturbingly.
Many objects are indistinguishably like those of particular Malayan localities ;
thus the spears of the Carolines resemble those of central Celebes. Polynesian
influences predominate especially in the Gilbert Islands ; tattooing instruments
agree exactly. The agreements between Melanesia and Micronesia lie in a mass
of small details ; the young people of Astrolabe Bay wear, besides the comb in
their hair, little sticks bound with grass and adorned with cock's feathers, repeating
the curious head ornament of the Ruk Islanders. The loom of Santa Cruz, unique
in the Melanesian region, is closely akin to that of the Carolines.
THE RACES OF THE PACIFIC AND THEIR MIGRATIONS
Within the region of the darker races the contrasts are naturally sharper. In
every archipelago, and in New Guinea, lighter and darker groups may be
distinguished. The Papuas of New Guinea west of Humboldt Bay, are on the
average darker than those to the eastward ; in the western portion we no longer
meet with light - skinned, straight - haired people, who might be taken for
Polynesians. Ethno-
graphical character-
istics point partly to
the more easterly
islands of the Sunda
group ; the short bows
of bamboo strung with
fibres, or the stone
clubs and the armour.
Of smaller, quite spe-
cial characteristics, we
may note the arrows,
exactly like those of
Ceram. The more
warlike and enterpris-
ing tribes dwell in
East New Guinea ;
they are far superior
to the natives of the
interior, the stupid
Dorese, and the good-
tempered, cunning
Papuas of the south-
west coast. This
character extends to
the inhabitants of the
neighbouring islands
to east and north.
Between the Bis-
marck and Solomon
Islanders, too, there is
a great agreement in
character ; they are
strong, coarse, warlike,
but at the same time capable of work and receptive of education. In some
distinctive details, such as the use of coloured bast and grass for ornament, the
Solomon Islanders agree with New Guinea. The Trobriand, D'Entrecasteaux,
and other islands southward to Teste form, with eastermost New Guinea, one
ethnographical province. Here we begin to find a higher proportion than in New
Guinea of population partly straight-haired and fair-skinned, with such specific
features as the loin-cloth made from the pandanus-\&a.i, the working of small disks
of red spondylus-sheW for ornament, the peculiar mode of inserting the axe-head,
navigation highly advanced, and cannibalism. Some of these characteristics
Rattan cuirass, throvving-sticks of dark wood, and bark belt, from Kaiser
Wilhelm's Land. ( Berlin Museum. )
l82
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
mark the transition from East New Guinea to the more westerly regions. Ahke
in New Guinea and the next islands to the eastward there has been developed
a style in which the human countenance is rendered by means of two straight
lines, one at right angles to the other, to indicate the nose and lower nm of the
forehead, a corresponding line giving the mouth. The effect of boredom pro-
duced by this physiognomy has been noted as being the effort to portray the
Axes from the D'Entrecasteaux Islands — one-eighth real size. (Christy Collection.)
bored Englishman ; but it also reminds us of the " tortoise-shell style " of the
Torres Islands, where it is made necessary by the material. In the case of the
Admiralty Islanders, holding as they do an intermediate position among the
rest of the Melanesians, it is interesting to note that their peculiarities are
negative. Except the spear they have no weapons ; lacking bow and arrow,
throwing-stick, sling, and axe. Bow and arrow are wanting also among other
Melanesians, and the Australians ; but the latter have other weapons, in some
cases in remarkable abundance and variety. In the poverty of the islanders of
whom we are speaking one might be inclined to see an effect of their isolation,
an evidence of limited intercourse. But many other characteristics point to closer
affinities, in one or another direction, with the inhabitants of Humboldt Bay, the
Solomon Islands, or New Hanover.
THE RACES OF THE PACIFIC AND THEIR MIGRATIONS
183
The more easterly islands of Melanesia show, as in Fiji and the New Hebrides,
the largest proportion of Polynesian inflilences. Fiji indeed cannot be understood
apart from Tonga ; Fiji is " upper," Tonga " lower." The relations between these
two groups are most intimate. Physically the Fijians must be regarded as hybrids
between the Mongoloid and the Negroid ; etymologically the Tongan is of all
Polynesian dialects the nearest to the Fijian. In style the productions of Fiji
bear the closest resemblance to those of Samoa. But the broad paddles of New
Hanover, with strong middle rib, also remind us vividly of this group. New
Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands form a district by themselves. The inhabit-
ants of the former island are more pronounced negroids than those of the latter,
where, indeed, Mare contains a Polynesian colony, self-founded ; but in both
Polynesian influences are
clearly apparent. Deduct-
ing the effects of the soil
and the unfavourable cli-
mate, there still remain
many peculiarities corre-
sponding to the secluded
position. Among these are
the circular huts, the pecu-
liar shape of spears and
clubs, the absence of the
bow, the use of the pretty
brown bat's fur for all kinds
of adornments. Special to
New Caledonia are the
binding of the grip of a weapon with string, or cloth, the attachment of woollen
tassels, and the like ; also the broad jade blades, the beak-shaped clubs, the
absence or rudeness of sculpture. The closest affinities to New Caledonia are
shown by the northern New Hebrides.
While Polynesian influences have flowed so copiously over the eastern
boundary of Melanesia that they got possession of whole islands, Malay influences
have been far less active on the west side. Only in western New Guinea are
they decidedly predominant. On its eastern shores, till you come towards Tagai,
the people of New Guinea were ten years ago still completely in the stone age ;
while in the west the working of iron had long been known. Spear-heads, short
swords, and knives soon became common in the palaces on the coast of Geelvink
Bay. The colonies coming from the east, who settled in the coast districts of
eastern New Guinea, appear to have made more impression than the conquerors
and rulers from the west. But that, in spite of that, an old connection must be
assumed, is quite clearly seen both from the negroid elements which, scattered as
they are throughout the Malay Archipelago, are represented with especial strength
in its eastern half, and also from ethnographic characteristics. In the district
bounded to the westward by a line drawn through Halmahera and Flores, both
elements appear so strongly that the region appears to be one of transition from
Malay to Melanesian. Here we find forms of bows and arrows showing a
remarkable similarity with the Melanesian ; so, too, older forms of spear, filing
of teeth, and tattooing, have maintained a wide extension.
Carred wooden plaques, used as stamps, from the Fiji Islands.
(Godeffroy Collection. )
i84
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
It can hardly be doubted that, from the stream of migration which entered,
the Pacific from the westward, rills were diverted to the continent of Australia.
Here, too, we have a mingled strain, whose main constituents are a fairer straight-
haired, and a darker crisp -haired race. Relations with an older world may
unquestionably be pre-
sumed. The funda-
mental ideas, and many
details in the initiatory
rites for boys and girls,
are thoroughly Ocean-
ian, and connect at least
Northern Australia with
the neighbouring New
Guinea and its adjacent
islands. Traces of taboo
also appear ; and if their
usage is less sharply
marked than in Poly-
nesia, the cause may be
found in the coarser life
and more indigent con-
dition of the Australians.
In former times more
consistent and more
highly -finished customs
may have prevailed. For
the racial dualism, which
the rapid progress of
crossing has done its
best to obliterate, we
can look, so far as our-
present knowledge al-
lows, only to Papuas
and Malays. It is a
fact that Malays live,
temporarily or perman-
ently, among North Australian tribes, and exercise no small influence upon
them ; while on the other hand there can be no doubt as to the temporary
intercourse of the Torres Islanders with both Papuas and Australians. On
the north-west coasts of Australia we can prove Malayan influence more
certainly than any other. The extension of the bamboo in Arnhemland,
the existence of small-pox before the arrival of Europeans, the objection to
eat pig-meat, testify to this. Perhaps also we may trace to the same cause
the absence of the boomerang in North Australia. Without doubt these races
must have begun to permeate long before the historical period. The Malay
fisheries on the North Australian coast are, says Campbell, a settled insti-
tution, pointing to a long duration. The evidence of Tasmania would lead
us to assume a crisp-haired race as originally inhabiting Australia ; for the
Jade battle-axes and jade hatchet, insignia of chiefs, from New Caledonia.
(Christy Collection. )
THE POLYNESIANS AND MICRONESIANS 185
Tasmanian hair was decidedly more woolly than the Australian. The apparently
uniform conditions of Australia are complicated by what Bastian calls " the
shadow which the great continent of Asia casts over these oceanic groups of
islands." We cannot disprove that Malayo-Polynesian elements may have reached
Australia from the eastward also, just as easily as they got to New Guinea ; but
no evidence for it is forthcoming. Norfolk Island was uninhabited when dis-
covered by Europeans. Nor is the connection with New Guinea in any way
intimate. Whether remains of the dingo are really found in the Australian
Post-pliocene or not, probability is strongly in favour of his having been introduced
by human immigrants ; and the New Guinea dog is different. Ethnographical
objects, too, are not alike on the two sides of Torres Straits.
§ 3. PHYSICAL QUALITIES AND INTELLECTUAL LIFE OF
THE POLYNESIANS AND MICRONESIANS
Bodily peculiarities — Racial marks — Colour — Head — Hair — Albinism — Muscular strength — Spiritual Disposi-
tion— A race of contradictions — Optimistic critics — Stupidity — Frivolity — Lies and Dissimulation — Comedy
of King Finn — Licentiousness — Human sacrifices, cannibalism, and infanticide — Intellectual capacity —
Influence of Christianity — Creative power of the Polynesian mind — Invention — Mythology — Cosmogony —
Knowledge of geography — Medicine — Reckoning of time — Counting — Music and dancing — Wrestling and
boxing — Games of children.
Among the Polynesian tribes, distributed as they are over a wide area broken up
into numerous islands, varying greatly in natural resources, and permeated by a
deeply-rooted social organisation, racial distinctions emerge very clearly. It is
almost superfluous specially to emphasise the fact that in this race too we can
find no absolute unity. Crossings have taken place, of which we can no longer
determine the individual elements, though doubtless negroid constituents turned
up among them. But whatever may be the history of the Polynesians, they
form a special group of mankind. In close affinity with the Malay race they
have a brown skin, with a prevailing tendency to light gradations, such as might
on the average be designated as olive-brown ; though among the Micronesians
we find the Chinese yellow, and among the Samoans the light-brown tint of
Southern Europeans. The hair is black, smooth to curly. Finsch considers
that within these limits the Micronesians do not vary more from the actual
Polynesians than Swabians from North Germans. There are Polynesian colonies
in the Micronesian region, but many Micronesians come nearer to the Melanesian
type.
Among the more important bodily characteristics we may mention the pre-
dominance of short skulls, often exaggerated by artificial deformation ; low, but
generally well-shaped foreheads, often causing the facial angle to be equal to that of
Europeans ; noses more often snub than curved ; eyes small, lively, usually placed
horizontally, with remarkably wide opening and eloquent expression ; cheek bones
projecting forward rather than sideways ; and, lastly, mouths well shaped in spite
of thick lips. In general the lighter Polynesians, more especially Maoris and
Tongans, resemble most the European type even in expression ; while the some-
what darker Micronesians, as has been said, approach the Melanesian. The
1 86
THE HISTORY OF ^fAI\'K'I^'D
general character is soft features and pleasing demeanour. The expression
" nobly-formed races," is so commonly used of the Polynesians that it may be
worth while to point out that it is only their stature which can be judged by a
European standard.
The handsomest woman of Samoa," says Hugo Zoller,
" cannot be com-
pared with any-
thing more than
a pretty German
peasant girl."
The hair in its
finer texture and
tendency to form
waves or even
ringlets, departs
from the coarse
straight Mongol-
ian form. The
best term for it
is " crisp " hair.
Occasionally wigs
are met with,
sticking up and
towzled after the
Papuan fashion.
The colour of the
hair ranges from
black to chestnut
brown. A lighter
tinge, particu-
larly rusty-brown
wisps running
through dark
hair, and reddish
or yellowish col-
oration of the
tips, proceeds
from frequent
bathing and pow-
dering with lime.
Albinism seems
to be rare. The
development of hair on the face and body is less in straight-haired than in
curly-haired persons.
The bodily strength of the Polynesians is not very great ; the small amount
of labour which many of them perform hardly tends to a thorough development
of the body. Even the most stalwart-looking Maoris possess, on the average
only a fraction of an Englishman's lifting power ; nor do they excel in speed of
foot. Arms and legs run rather to fat than to muscle. A notable corpulence
Samoan woman. (From a photograph in the Godeffroy Album).
THE POLYNESIANS AND MICRONESIANS
187
is frequent as a result of indolence. The average weight of the men in the
Gilbert Islands is, according to Finsch, about 1 2 stone, the maximum a little
over 15. In stature the Polynesians hold a medium position. Finsch's measure-
ments give 5 feet 1 1 inches as the highest figure for a man of the Gilbert
Islands, and 5 feet 3^ inches for a woman of Upolu, one of the most powerful
and stoutest of Polynesian women. The minima fall just below 5 feet. Long
ago G. Forster said of the Easter Islanders, who live under conditions calculated
to stunt them : " We did not find among them a single man who could be called
tall." In the Marshall Archipelago the natives of the more northerly islands,
which are less visited by strangers, and produce food in greater abundance, are
men of a taller and stronger stamp ; while the great majority of those in the
Women of the Gilbert Islands and Marshall Islands. (Godeffroy Album. )
southern islands are slender men who grow old prematurely. The more weakly
type tends to prevail ; possibly the indolence which shrinks from the exertion of
fishing, and limits itself to a vegetable diet, may have something to do with this.
According to Finsch the Gilbert Islanders may be indicated as the strongest.
They are distinguished by the rapidity with which they multiply, supplying an
abundant emigration. Racial differences are to some extent involved in the
social organisation. The lighter people of the upper classes are descended from
Japanese, Chinese, and Spaniards ; and tanning by the sun assuredly does not
alone account for the darker tint of the lower classes. Ellis heard it said when
a swarthy man passed : " How d^rk he is, he must have good bones." Still the
darker complexions are not found exclusively in the lower classes, while the
lighter skin of the aristocracy admits of exceptions here and there.
The acuteness of their senses is considerable ; and this holds good not merely
of their cleverness in finding lost objects, or seeing small birds in covert. An
inventive intelligence is native to them. The Polynesian has not the childish
naivete of the negro; but at the, same time he is not so reserved as the Malay
nor so calculating as the Chinese. If in surrender to the impulses of their nature
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
these are genuine " natural " races,
on the other hand the barriers of
tradition are rigid and social ordin-
ances manifold ; and although they
attack Nature and each other with
primitive implements and weapons,
they have in other directions given
proof of no narrow intellectual en-
dowment. If all " natural " races
display something contradictory in
the proportion which their cultiva-
tion bears to their endowment, the
Polynesians are in truth a race of
contradictions. To Cook and his
companions the Tahitians and So-
ciety Islanders appeared as gentle
and agreeable people, in many
respects to be envied, fortunate,
like children of an extremely happy
disposition. Yet a century ago the
Tongans were still cannibals. And
if we turn over the record of the
dealings of the Tahitians with white
men, we shall find mention of their
meeting with Wallis's expedition ;
which they met in quite a different manner, and experienced a bloody repulse.
By that time the white men had
made themselves feared. In
cases where they had not re-
ceived any lesson of this kind,
the natives appeared as regular
savages. Cook was himself
partly to blame, by his over-
confidence, for his murder on
Hawaii. A whole series of
treacherous attacks are known
to have occurred in the small
exterior islands, such as the
Paumotu, Savage, and Penrhyn
groups ; and the history of New
Zealand records still more.
Without being savages after
the fashion of the Bushmen or
Australians, the Polynesians are
of an untrustworthy changeable
character. The Micronesians
for the most part maintain a
timid attitude; but they are A man of Rotuma. (Godeffroy Album.)
A Tongan. (Godeffroy Album. )
THE POLYNESIANS AND MICRONESIANS
189
frequently few in number confined to a solitary island, and almost defenceless
against strangers.
Under great outward vivacity lies the dulness of the uncultured nature.
Even among Christian Polynesians one is struck by the indifference with which
they meet a disgraceful death at the hand of the executioner ; and the tranquillity
of children at the death of their parents, particularly in blood-steeped New Zealand,
has been remarked. Human sacrifices and cannibalism must have left their traces
in the disposition. These evil qualities are cloaked by a childish levity. The
task of the criminal law is materially lightened by their garrulity ; they cannot
keep a s.ecret, even to save themselves from the scaffold. Throughout Polynesia
A man of Pelew, and a man of Yap in the Carolines. (Godeffroy Album. )
one hears plenty of quarrelsome talk and sees very little fighting. Even in serious
warfare words play an important part. Many words are accompanied by many
falsehoods. An entertaining proof of the art of the Polynesians in fiction is
afforded by the appearance of the sham king Finn on Cook's second visit to the
Friendly Islands in 1777. In order to carry through the part, many others had
to take as much share in the farce as he himself; and yet Cook was taken in for
some days, and only began to suspect when he saw the impostor do obeisance to
the real king.
The Polynesians show themselves quite open to the requirements of an
industrial life in the European sense. The sugar-plantations which form the
chief wealth of Hawaii are no doubt at present chiefly in the hands of whites or
half-breeds ; but King Kamehameha III. rendered essential service in promoting
the cultivation of the sugar-cane. The first Christians on Maui performed a
wonderful feat when they built a church 1 00 feet in length ; carrying stone, lime,
and sand on their backs, and hauling timber with their hands. Twice the principal
I go
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
rafter gave way, and for the third time they put it up again, nothing loth. It is,
to be sure, just the vaHant, laborious, progressive Polynesians who are decried by
Europeans as avaricious and stubborn. The Samoans and Tahitians are reckoned
more serviceable. The profound difference between the dissolute, idle, light-
skinned inhabitants of fertile Tahiti, and the industrious, clever, sober, muscular
native of the poorer Tonga Islands is instructive. Is it not significant that the
Tongans escaped the corrupt aristocratic rule of Tahiti ?
In order to form a fair judgment as to the licentiousness ascribed to the
Polynesians, we must consider that their excesses were described with much
exaggeration by visitors who only learned to know the people superficially.
Much of it no doubt arises from their general level of culture. Levity and
idleness have in some places allowed sexual irregularity to reach an incredible
pitch of corruption among the upper classes ; while
in New Zealand, in Samoa, and especially in
Tonga, women hold, on the contrary, a high
position.
Human sacrifices, cannibalism and traces of it,
also infanticide, will be dealt with in the section
on society.
With the first ray of light which falls upon
the life of Polynesia, together with the opening-up
of the central regions of the Pacific, we get a
glimpse of a strong movement of great value in
the history of civilization. If indeed it be too
much to assume that a development in the direc-
tion of a pure monotheism was making its way in
their religion before the arrival of Christian influ-
ences, we can, at any rate, recognise therein a powerful impulse towards the creation
of a pantheon. With a little more space and a little more stability, we should have
found an Indian mythology in Polynesia. Morally the Polynesians did not and
do not stand high ; and yet their abandonment of cannibalism and human sacrifice
speaks a great deal for their self-education. It is a progress towards humanity to
which full justice has not been done by all critics. Generally too the Polynesians
have shown a rare capacity for education ; quite apart from their faculty of
imitating European dress-customs. Nowhere else have missions so soon attained
to the point of sending out native teachers. For many years whole groups, such
as Tonga, Samoa, Hervey, have possessed a church and a school in every village,
with clergy and teachers of whom by far the greater part are natives. At the
same time these communities soon became self-supporting. The London Missionary
Society has for years no longer had occasion to send pecuniary aid to Samoa ; on
the contrary, that Mission has itself forwarded material contributions for missionary
purposes to other districts. Among the most curious phenomena are the
independent offshoots from Christianity. Thus in Upolu, Siovedi, a native of
Savaii, founded the " gimblet-religion." Professing to converse with God and to
work miracles, he enjoined a mutual confession of sins in cases of sickness ; and
his divine service was rendered specially impressive by the discharge of firearms.
Also in Samoa, a native, who taught the invocation of the God of Heaven,
brought with him on his return from the whale-fishery an old woman who used
Dressed skull, from the Marshall Islands.
(Godeffroy Collection).
THE POLYNESIANS AND MICRONESIANS
IQI
to '' touch " for diseases from behind a curtain, alleging that Christ resided
within her.
In all variations of Polynesian mythology an element of philosophising
appears in astonishing luxuriance. Nowhere do we find better confirmation of
the fact that at this stage mythology includes all science. When, as in the
Society Islands, we find the creation of spiritual forces following immediately
upon the emerging of Ru from the side of his mother Papa, we
are in the region of abstractions. Not till then is the material
world created by the union of Tangaroa with the various forces
of Nature. We get the impression of natural science in embryo
when Tangaroa produces, with the goddess of the external world,
clouds and rain ; with the goddess of the inner world, the germs
of movement ; with the air, the rainbow, the light, the moon ;
and with a goddess dwelling in the earth, volcanic fire. This
structure of ideas, the creation of ' thoughtful minds, was not
adapted for wider extension, and therefore the universal myth-
ology of Polynesia could not accommodate itself to the analysis
of its simple cosmogony, which made the world result from the
embrace of heaven and earth, into these abstract conceptions.
But in the great simple images of the sea, the islands, the earth
as a fixed island or floating in the sea, in their need of orienta-
tion by the aid of sun, moon, and stars, the Polynesians found
an inducement to observe the heavenly phenomena more keenly,
and to form cosmogonic imaginations. Their conception of the
world, to the formation of which fancy has contributed more
than understanding, is yet based upon a mass of observations.
The moon is a woman, with an indwelling capacity for renewal.
The man in the moon is Rona, who stumbled as he went about
at night and was taken up by the moon with the branch of the
tree to which he tried to hold. Both sun and moon renew their
youth in the spring of the water of life. While the moon and
stars are in a heaven nearer the earth, namely the third, the sun
shines only from the fifth ; else he would burn up everything.
Sun and moon once lived together and produced the dry land Bamboo flutes from
of the earth. And while the sun is on one side made fast to Hawaii. (British
. .... , , . Museum. )
the moon by Maui, on the other it is bound to the earth by its
own beams. From this twofold attachment also eclipses arise. The stars were
created by the ancestors of the present Polynesian race. As the population of
heaven they are divided into two parts, between which the Milky Way, or " great
shark," forms the boundary. The shooting-stars are the means by which they
send messages to their former creators. Among the constellations Orion with the
Southern Cross and the neighbouring stars as " Tamarereti's Canoe,'' and the
Pleiads, under the name of " the bowsprit of the canoe," enjoy special consideration.
In the rainbow they see also the bow, or the gleaming bowstring, or the ladder
whereby the souls of chiefs ascend to heaven.
The frequent migrations of the Polynesians from one island to another led
in course of time to the acquirement of a certain stock of knowledge. The
talented Tupaia drew for Cook a kind of map on which numerous islands of
rs?
192
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Polynesia were marked. The names were found to be pretty correct, but not
the position and size. Intelligent people were fairly well informed about neigh-
bouring islands ; they distinguished the low or coral islands from the ofty or
volcanic, and knew whether they were permanently or only occasionally inhabited,
and the like. The brother of the chief of Raraka drew with chalk on the deck
of Wilkes's vessel all the islands of Paumotu that he knew, and named three,
which were actually discovered later.
What the Polynesians knew rested on a great persistency of tradition. iheir
stock of culture shows of how much a
talented race, without writing, and we
may add, in its stone age, is capable.
Mythology, historical tradition, and
star-lore, are taught together by special
persons, and a little medicine besides.
Part of this is kept secret. Genealogies
are taught at night to promising boys.
On the memorial tablets they find the
important names in the notches, dis-
: tinguished by special ornamentation.
When they become priests they recog-
nise each other by secret passwords.
The traditional hymns which are re-
cited at purificatory festivals are in the
keeping of the priests. Besides the
sacred, there is also a profane tradition,
the depositaries of which are often
curiously enough in the lowest ranks of
society. To them are entrusted his-
torical memories, the lays of the heroes,
the myths which have become old wives'
fables. Among the priests a kind of
medical science had developed itself,
the sound principles of which were
smothered under the hocus-pocus of
The Tahitian places the seat of life and natural dis-
the belly, and uses the term " bowels " to denote what we express
On the other hand the head is as with us the seat of the human
Dancing stilts, from the Marquesas.
Ethnographical Museum. )
Munich
supernatural commerce.
position in
by " heart."
thinking faculty, and for this reason receives special veneration, which to be sure
has a cannibal tinge. Among the more rational modes of treating the sick,
" massage " has the fifst place. Among medical apparatus we find bottle-gourds
for administering injections, and the claws of a Squilla for puncturing pustules.
The Polynesian language possesses numerals to denominate the thousands.
Lehu, •' ashes," indicates the limit of the numerable. As a rule the system is
naturally that of division into fives and tens ; but Tou-Fa, that is " four-reckoning "
forms in the Marquesas and Hawaii a scale with forty as its peculiar unit. In
Hawaii, Ule, Pelew, and elsewhere, they used, to facilitate counting, a system
which was also highly elaborated in Peru, of tying knots in string. The Tahitians
tied strips of coco-palm leaf in bundles ; the New Zealanders used notched sticks.
THE POLYNESIANS AND MICRONESIANS
193
Time is reckoned by lunar months.
In Tahiti there were fourteen of these,
two of which Forster regarded as
intercalary. The names of the m.onths
in many cases are referable to agricul-
ture and the phenomena of vegetable
life. In New Zealand we find thirteen
months, and the tenth reckoned twice
over. The names of the months and
the first day of the year vary from
one island to another, and besides
I. Paddles used at dances, from Easter Island — one-thirteenth real size (Berlin Museum of Ethnology),
ii. Bamboo dancing-stilts, from the Marquesas — one-tenth real size (Christy Collection).
O
194 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
that, traces remain of another system of chronology dividing the year mto
two parts with the disappearance and reappearance of the Pleiads, thus
reckoning six months only. Thus in a number of islands New Year's day falls
at the southern winter solstice. Besides this, they reckon by generations ; and
this reckoning goes back twenty-nine generations in Rarotonga, twenty-seven in
Mangareva, amounting to a handsome tale of centuries, but of course starting
from mythical times.
Song and dance occupy a large part of the life of the dwellers in the fortunate
isles of the tropic zone. The Maoris, too, sing on every occasion ; at work, in
dancing, in rowing, at their sports, or when marching to war. They especially
like amoebean songs, in which choruses alternate with individual chants. But
the character of their songs is not cheerful, however cheerful may be the mood
which inspires them ; rather are they solemn. The Polynesians have a decided
sense for rhythm and even for rhyme. At the more important performances,
monologues, dialogues, even the rudiment of a drama, often consisting in the
mimic representation of a quarrel, ending in blows, are put on the stage between
pas seuls. On these occasions dancing-wands or dancing-stilts, often finely carved,
are in use. Cook's companion, Anderson, describes a musical entertainment in
Tonga as follows : " Eighteen men sat in the ring of spectators, four or five
having bamboo-tubes closed at the lower end. These they steadily struck almost
vertically on the ground in slow time ; muffled notes, varying according to the
length of the tube, being given out. Another musician produced clear tones by
striking with two sticks a long split bamboo which lay on the ground in front of
him. The rest sang a soft air, so much mellowed by the rougher tones of the simple
instruments that no one could help recognising the power and pleasing melodious-
ness of the music." On other occasions hollow tree-stems are beaten like drums
with two sticks. Of all the manifold European instruments the drum was the
only instrument of which the Tongans would take any notice ; and this they
thought inferior to their own. Micronesian drums are distinguished for their
marked hour-glass shape. Particular drums are used in divine service, and
are regarded as sacred. Bamboo flutes and shell trumpets are everywhere
common.
Among the dances are also included the war and weapon games, and the
favourite wrestling and boxing contests. In Hawaii, when Cook was there, even
the girls took part in these. The Polynesians have a great liking for games.^
One of their games is very like our draughts, but appears to be more complicated,
since the board has 238 squares, divided into rows of fourteen. Another
consists in hiding a stone in a piece of cloth, and trying to find it by hitting
with a stick ; in this game the betting is the important point. Ball-games are
very popular. In the Hawaiian game called Lala, a wheel-shaped stone {Maika),
is thrown as far as possible ; and players stake all their property, their wives and
children, their arm and leg bones (after their death), and at last even their
own persons on one throw. Another pastime is racing between boys and
girls. Swimming in the surf with the help of a board or spar is also in
some measure a game of chance ; it is played, especially in Hawaii, by
' [Mr. Stevenson mentions somewhere that cricket-matches in Samoa used to be played by whole villages,
some hundreds on a side, and to last for weeks. At length the waste of time and cost of entertaining the
" visitors" reached such a pitch that the chiefs had to interfere.]
Printed "by the BibliograpMsches InsUtut. leijzig-.
PATTERN OF POLYNESIAN TAPA.
(From Cook's coUECtioiL ia the ethnograpliical Museum, "Vleima.,)
THE POLYNESIANS AND MICRONESIANS i95
both sexes with much dexterity and pluck. Little boats are a frequent toy
of children ; who also, like their elders, are fond of ball -play. The young
New Zealanders have a special predilection for flying kites. Another game
of theirs is to throw up a ball made of leaves bound together, and catch
it on a stick sharpened at both ends. Besides these, games with the fingers,
like the Italian morra, are very common ; and the players are extremely clever
at them.
§ 4. DRESS, WEAPONS, AND IMPLEMENTS OF POLYNESIANS
AND MICRONESIANS
Dress and ornament — Tattooing — Deformations of the body — Feather ornaments — Modes of wearing the hair
— Objects used for ornament — Bark cloth — Tapa — Mats — Weapons and implements — Lack of iron —
Working in stone — Manufacture of weapons from wood — Spears — Clubs — Limits of diffusion of bow and
arrow — Slings — Industrial activity.
The stage of culture which the Polynesians have reached is very clearly
expressed in their external appearance ; that is, in their dress, their ornaments,
their equipment. Living under a fortunate sky, and surrounded with water,
both Polynesians and Micronesians bathe often, and are, therefore, a cleanly
race. Unluckily they frequently destroy the effect of this virtue by excessive
anointing of themselves with coco-palm oil or chewed coco -nut. They prefer
fresh water to salt for bathing, and regard both as a good remedy against
illness. Women with their newly -born infants, and even people in mortal
sickness, will bathe.
Artificial mutilations and embellishments of the person are widely spread.
Deformation of the skull, both by flattening it behind and elongating it towards
the vertex, is found in isolated instances in Tahiti, Samoa, Hawaii, and the
Paumotu group, but occurs nowhere with such frequency as on Mallicollo in the
New Hebrides, where the skull is squeezed extraordinarily flat. Flattening of
the nose is practised in Tahiti and among the Yap Islanders ; and the nasal
septum is often bored to allow of the insertion of flowers or feathers. The ears
are bored, and bits of greenstone, teeth of men and sharks, feathers and flowers,
stuck in for ornament. On Easter Island, as in Micronesia, the ear-lobes are
dragged into flaps by heavy wooden plugs. The Micronesians also bore the rim
of the ear in various ways.
Tattooing nowhere reaches such perfection as in these regions. In Polynesia
the men are in general more tattooed than the women ; but in some places both
sexes are alike, and on Nukuor the women only are thus adorned. The custom
of tattooing the face was not in use among all Polynesians, particularly not in
Rarotonga ; though universal among the Maoris, with whom the Rarotongans
were brought into the closest contact. The special forms of tattooing intended to
excite fear seem to have left off since the introduction of European modes of
fighting. Another advantage claimed for tattooing is that it obliterates differences
of age. Lastly the embellishment resulting from it must not be forgotten ; as the
tattooer's song says :
196
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
. . . Every line be duly drawn.
On the man who's rich and great
Shape your figures fair and straight ;
On the man who cannot pay
Make them crooked, coarse, and spla)'.
Here, as with other Polynesians, tattooing is no doubt founded upon, and
proceeds from, some religious idea. It is regarded as a sacred profession, which
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is exercised by the priest to the accompaniment of prayers and hymns. The
figures depicted are often those of sacred animals like snakes and lizards. In
Samoa it is based on the doctrine of the Aiua or tutelary spirit in beast shape ;
which was why the missionaries found it so hard to put an end to the practice.
In the Micronesian region tattooing has become to a great extent a pure matter
of decoration, but not everywhere. On Nukuor the women live for three months
secluded in the sacred house, and bathe in the sea before undergoing the operation,,
which extends only to a small portion of the lower part of the body. In the
Radack group the patient spends the previous night in the house of the chief,.
who prays for favourable tokens. In the Society and Paumotu Islands, the
Marquesas, the Carolines, differences are made according to rank ; the common
people being tattooed on the loins only, whilst the Ern or Art'h' are distinguished
by large circular markings over the whole body. In the Gilbert Islands a poor
man who is tattooed enjoys more influence in the general council than a rich man
whose surface is blank. On Rotuma caste-distinctions are indicated by tattooing..
THE POLYNESIANS AND MICRONESIANS
197
Yet the chief's rank is not always thus expressed ; many chiefs are but slightly
tattooed, while ordinary citizens show this ornament all over their persons. In
the Marshall Islands the right of tattooing the cheeks is reserved to the chiefs,
while on Mortlock Island differences of rank are shown in the decoration of the
legs. The two sides of the body are often unsymmetrical, and in this case the
right side receives the more elaborate treatment. The Samoans select for tattooing
exactly the region which we cover with bathing-drawers ; the effect produced
being that of a striped and spotted cloth wrapped about them. Among the
Maoris it took years before the body was ornamented up to the design conceived
in ^;he artist's fancy ; but with them the traits of the face
are literally dissolved in arabesques. The operation, as
applied to lips, eyelids, and nose, was painful, especially
before the introduction of iron ; in the Hervey Islands,
Forster saw even tenderer portions of the frame sedu-
lously tattooed. The method is in this wise. The figure
is drawn where required ; then a little stick, pointed
with stone, bone (human bone for choice), or iron, is
tapped with a wooden mallet so as to form a series of
punctures along the lines. The tattooing tools consist
of an instrument something like a little hoe, made of
hard wood — four shapes occur in Samoa — the flat blade
of which terminates in a number of sharp teeth, and a
little mallet made of the same wood and shaped like a
paddle, which serves to drive it in. For colouring, the
Maoris use the soot of kaiiri-'^me. wood.
Besides this, in time of mourning the skin of the
face, arms, and legs has to undergo cutting with sharp
shells, while at festivities it was usual to colour it with
red and black paint. Thus when Cook visited Easter
Island the women had painted their faces with ruddle,
some also with the yellow dye of the turmeric ; others
whitening them with cross-streaks of lime. Herewith we may reckon the fact
that in accordance with the proverb " No wife for a hairy man," every vestige
of hair is removed from the face ; though it is otherwise in Micronesia. In other
parts of the body the hair is extracted with tweezers made of mussel-shell.
Circumcision in a modified form is very common ; though over large regions such
as Hawaii and New Zealand it is not practised, and elsewhere, as in the Marquesas,
is not universal. This operation also is of a religious character, and is performed
by the priests.
The mode of wearing the hair is suited to its stiff growth, and is simple
accordingly. It is either worn unfastened and falling, or is cut off. The latter
course seems, in the Society Islands and their neighbourhood, to have been
enjoined upon all women except those of the royal family. In the Friendly
Islands men and women wear the hair cut short and combed upwards in bristles.
By powdering with lime the tips are reddened, while turmeric gives a golden gloss.
The fashion of wearing the hair tied in a top-knot may perhaps be an imitation :
on the very first day of Cook's visit a Tahitian chief copied his bag-wig. With
the imperfect cutting-tools at their disposal, the shaving of the head was no light
Tattooing instruments from the
Friendly Islands — one - third
real size. (British Museum).
igS
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
matter ; and there were few among the achievements of civilization which the
Polynesians had cause to prize so highly as scissors and razors. In Micronesia
the head-ornament consists almost everywhere of a long narrow wooden comb,
with ten or twelve teeth, decorated about the handle, and at times furnished with
a rich feather-ornament. The long hairpins serve also to allay the irritation of
frequent insect-bites. The
curly hair of the Gilbert
Islanders is frizzed up with
a stick till it stands out in
a crown. On Mortlock
Island the head -ring is
covered with iibres after
the manner of a brush ;
while on Nukuor the head-
dress is formed of a long
plate of wood, broadening
towards the top. This sort
of thing, however, must no
doubt be regarded as a
dance -ornament or a reli-
gious emblem. The ances-
tral statues often carry a
similar adornment. Actual
head-coverings are not usual,
or are permitted only at
night, or out of the country.
In the Carolines, as formerly
in Hawaii, European hats
are directly imitated. On
Fakaafo in the Tokelau
Islands, Hale saw boat-
men wearing eye -shades
of closely- plaited material
bound on to their foreheads,
just as weak-sighted people
A man of Ponap^ in the Carolines. (From a photograph in the Godeffroy ^^^^ ^'^ .^'^ "^- .
Album.) As With tattoomg, SO
, , feather ornaments extend
back from the domain of secular fashion to that of religion. Birds are among
the sacred animals, and this is especially the case with that bird which in its red
tai -feathers affords the article most sought for ornamental purposes among the
Polynesians, the Tropic-bird {Phaethon). At one time no article of commerce was
in such demand in the Society Islands. The feathers were stuck on to banana-
leaves, which were bound on the forehead ; and even on the coco-nut fibre aprons
of the dancing-girls. The most valuable head-dresses were made of feathers.
Other objects of wide distribution were the supple necklaces of twisted string,
in which coloured feathers were twined. In the Marquesas and on Easter
Island feather-diadems were also worn. But it was in Hawaii that feather-
THE POLYNESIANS AND MICRONESIANS 199
ornament reached its greatest development and its highest value. The feathers
of Melithreptes Pacifica were luxuries which forty years ago were permitted only
to the most distinguished people. Helmet-shaped head-dresses were decorated
with yellow feathers, quite reminding one in their shape and colour of the head-
gear worn by Buddhist priests.
Trifles of the most various kind find employment for decorative purposes. In
its shells of many colours the sea provides copious material. Flowers and tendrils
are worn in tasteful style round the neck, in the hair, in the ears, even in the
nose. Knotted strings oi pandanus-\e.z.i or coco-nut fibre serve not only for purposes
of divination, but, as on Ule, for the reckoning of time ; and many chiefs wear
them for that purpose round their necks. Or are we to see in this a kind of
record of memoranda {Dui) such as the chiefs
carry in Pelew ? To these superstition adds
shells and bones of particular shape, human
bones, human teeth ; even millipedes are strung
together for necklaces. Pendants of birds'
bones and ear-ornaments of albatross-skin were
favourite modes of adornment with the New
Zealanders. On Tongatabu the natives used
as ornaments the iron nails which Cook had
brought for trade-purposes ; one nail was the
price of a hen. In Tonga chains were made
of long thin leg -bones, alternating with small
brown snail-shells, and from them hung a large
mother-of-pearl shell. Single teeth, birds carved
from sperm-whales' teeth, black and white beads Breastplate of mother-of-pearl set in iron.
. and with sling of human hair — one-fourth
made from shells, are also hung round the neck. real size. (Christy Collection. )
Combs made of the stalks of plants, bound close
and evenly round the upper end with finely-plaited fibres are among the most
beautiful productions of Tongan art. In Hawaii the ornaments are either for
the feet, thickly set with dogs' teeth, snail-shells, or beans, or else armlets made
of carved pieces of bone or tortoise-shell, all of one size, fastened into a flexible
whole by doubled threads passed through them. Similar strings with closely-
ranged disks of shell, divided by smaller disks of a black nutshell, are used as
money and also occur as foot and arm ornaments.
In Micronesia also garlands of fresh flowers, red and yellow, play an important
part in feminine adornment. A shell, a circular piece of mother-of-pearl or
tortoiseshell, little polished disks of Conus shell, all strung on a thread of human
hair, form the favourite gaud of the Gilbert and Marshall Islanders. On Pingelap
bits of red Spondylus shell are liked for necklaces ; elbow-rings of Conus and
Nautilus shells are worn on Yap.
A Polynesian with all his jewellery upon him gives the impression of being
overlaid with varied hues. But the taste for colour, in the absence of staring
mineral pigments, was formerly much better developed than it is now that
European traders have taken to dressing these people in their stuffs at so much
a yard. Both sexes among the Polynesians are graceful ; nor is coquetry
unknown. On Sundays the Samoan women put on a long and ample chemise-
like garment, always of a bright colour, which suits them charmingly. When
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
they go to church they add a tiny straw-hat, decked with flowers and ribbons of
many colours, stuck as much as possible on the side of the head. For dancing,
i. Woman of Ponap^. 2. Woman of the Paumotu Islands (From photograph in the Godeffroy Album).
3. Women of the Society Islands (From photograph in the Dammara Album).
masks are worn ; also a peculiar ear-ornament, and skirts of leaves so dry that
as they move to the tune a rustling sound arises. Red paint is also freely
THE POLYNESIANS AND MICRONESIANS
employed, and they carry paddle-shaped dancing-wands. The Polynesians belong
to the better-clad I'aces ; they have advanced far beyond the point of mere covering
and gone in the direction of luxury. For this reason their bark stuffs, tapa 3ir\d gnaiu,
and their mats form the largest and most valuable part of their property ; in some
districts mats are a recognised form of currency. In many cases a skirt is worn
girt about the waist and falling to the feet ; the Tahitian women used to wear a
cloth over their shoulders with an opening for the head in the middle, and, in
addition, a skirt made of finer stuff. Both sexes wore another cloth wound turban
fashion round the head. In the Friendly Islands the dress was simpler ; the
skirt of the men was twisted up in a great bunch behind often very short ; that
of the women tied below the
breast, and as a rule not ac-
companied by the cape. Simi-
larly in Samoa and the neigh-
bouring islands the dress of
men and women consists of a
piece of cotton cloth wound
round the hips and reaching to
the knee ; leaves are frequently
employed for the same purpose.
In wet weather the bark cloth
is often replaced by a mantle
of long broad leaves which
hang down in a fringe ; on
solemn and festive occasions
the natives put on a fine mat
of plaited fibre. The inhabit-
ants of the eastward islands
are scantily clothed. The
Easter Islanders, when first
seen by Forster, were either
quite naked or with an inade-
quate apron hanging from the
girdle. In the Society Islands,
on the contrary, the luxury of Samoan lady with hair dressed high. (From the Godeffroy Album. )
clothing acquires a symbolical
significance. The war-clothes there consist of three poncho-like garments put on
one over another : the undermost a long white one, over that a red, and outside
all a short brown one. A dense envelopment of the whole body in as many
cloths as possible stands for a sign of a peaceful reception. In the time of
Cook and Forster the Tahitian dancing-girls wore a piece of brown stuff closely
wrapped round the breast. About the hips was a pad of four layers of cloth,
one upon another, alternately red and white, bound close with a cord whence a
mass of white cloth hung to the feet. The dress of the New Zealanders consisted
of skirt and mats ; these were fastened on the right shoulder in men, on the left
in women, the men wearing in' addition a flax belt from which hung the mere and
battle-axe. Head and feet remained a? a rule uncovered, though some tribes
on the middle island had flax sandals. What the axe of greenstone is as a
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
production of male industry, the mat is in the case of the women. From flax
alone they prepared twelve different mats. Besides this, rugs were made of, or
trimmed with, the skins of dogs and birds. The only distinction of rank, other
than tattooing, was shown by the mats. Every tribe had at one time some
Man of the Ruk Islands. (From the Godeffroy Album. )
special pattern of these, the differences consisting in the preparation of the fibre
and in the ornamentation.
The clothing of the Micronesians is less copious. In the northern Pelew
Islands we find men going quite naked. On Nukuor any clothing beyond the
absolute requirements of decency is allowed only at night and outside the reef.
THE POLYNESIANS AND MICRONESIANS
203
The Mortlock and Ruk Islanders are at the other end of the scale with their
poncho-like mantles woven of musa and hibiscus fibres and having the hole for
the head bordered with shell ornament. On the other hand, on Ruk the boys
do not obtain the mantle and therewith the privileges of male society until a later
age than that at which the girls are clothed with the apron. Here the list of
a chiefs wardrobe consists of mantle, belt, ear-ornaments, and rings of nutshell,
two necklaces, armlets, and breast-
ornament. A Caroline Islander of
the old style wears in the first place
a shirt made out of narrow strips of
coco-palm leaves reaching almost
to the knee, over which the men on
festive occasions put a second of a
pretty yellow colour, broad in the
fibre and longer. Sometimes Caro-
line Islanders who have become
Europeanised, continue to wear the
skirt under their shirts. Besides
this it was formerly the custom with
both sexes to wear a belt supporting
a band made of banana fibres gaily
coloured which passed between the
legs. Among the inhabitants of
Kushai this formed the only clothing.
This product of Caroline industry
was woven on a machine in which
the weft was contrived by a laborious
knotting together of various coloured
threads, while partly the same threads,
partly also red woollen yarn, were
employed for the warp. On the
Mortlock and Ruk Islands broader
girdles of i 5 to 25 strings were worn,
with little disks of nutshell arranged
on them. According to Kubary's
reckoning, not less than 12,500 of
these were required for a girdle of
twenty strings, so that among these
islanders the girdle is among the
most highly-prized articles of clothing.
Combs from Tonga — one-fourth real size. (British Museum.)
Bone comb from New Zealand — one-third real size.
(British Museum.)
Equally valuable used to be the girdles made only to order by the people of
Pelew, from opercula of a rare tridacna shell, and the chains known as klilt,
made of sixty-four tortoiseshell plates.
While the men have often remained faithful to tradition, the dress of the
women has been altered much more owing to the intercourse with white people.
They wear coloured cotton pocket-handkerchiefs both round the waist and also
poncho-wise over breast and shoulders. The stuffs made of strips of palm leaf
and bast have almost disappeared.
204
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
The weapons and utensils of the Polynesians are remarkably varied and
abundant ; but among the Melanesians we meet with a still more copious display
of inventiveness and artistic ingenuity. The absence of iron is especially noticeable.
When Europeans first came into contact with Polynesians, they found them
compelled to make up for the want of metals by using stones, bones, and shells.
Few of the Polynesian islands possess metallic ores. On the coral islands this
might be expected, but it is also true in most cases of the volcanic formations.
Man of the Ruk Islands. (From the Godeffroy Album. )
But the level of culture among these races is such as to make us believe that if
they had discovered the raw material they would have advanced to the use of the
metals. With stone, bones, teeth, wood, they have achieved all that was possible.
The implements of navigation and fishery, the boats and hooks, are perfect of
their kind, and show evidence not only of cleverness but of the inventive faculty.
Unlike the Australians and Bushmen, as soon as they get iron they know what to
do with it. Naturally, iron was also converted to purposes of ornament ; and as
the value of glass beads had already dropped considerably, iron ware of all kinds
Coco and Sago Palms.
THE POLYNESIANS AND MICRONESIANS
207
remained the leading article of European trade. They made it available at first
in the forms to which they had long been accustomed, putting pieces of iron hoop
into their axes in place of Tridacna shells, as shown in the cut on p. 208, but
retaining in other respects the customary form of the implement. On Ponapd,
where we can date the end of the Stone Age about the beginning of the twenties
of the present century, iron blades were still always fixed in the lemon-wood
handles as the stone had been ; but the old stone ones were kept, as sacred relics,
in the most secret corners of the house.
For all heavy implements, especially hammers, adzes, and axes, stone was the
most valuable material. It was less so for spears, and stone arrowheads were never in
Obsidian axes from E^ter Island — one-third real size. (British Museum. )
use. In Polynesian and Melanesian stone-axes we are struck at once by the fact of
their not being perforated, and by the rudimentary workmanship of the outline,
though careful rounding and polishing are not unknown. Even with the choicest
material and the most careful workmanship these axes do not go far beyond the
simple wedge ; and thus we seldom find them ground either hollow in the neck for
attachment, or to a curve in the sides. The simplest on the whole are the New
Zealand axes or adzes ; often plain rectangles, with the edge ground not in a curve,
but angular. Even in the very large and handsome axes from Hawaii the cutting
is rough so far as the rows of string which fasten the head to the handle extend.
But the rudest of all are the hatchets of the Easter Islanders, resembling rather
knives, " knapped " from obsidian or lava, very broad in the blade and short in
the handle. The axes of New Guinea and the neighbouring islands are often not
inferior to these in size, but are more rounded ; being fastened not on but
into the handle. The Hawaiian axes, 8 to 16 inches long in the blade, are
in size and shape more like those of New Zealand, but are flattened off where
they are laid against the helve. Long, narrow, chisel-like stone blades are also
found in this region ; while the large ornamental axes of the Hervey Islands have
thin blades of basalt of a spade-shape, often somewhat curved. The fitting of the
axe was everywhere essentially similar. Those which Cook brought from Tahiti
2o8
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
consisted of a wooden handle with an appendage like a heel projecting behind ; the
stone-axe, flat above and two-edged underneath, is attached to the front part, which
^New 7r,lH '-T^fw"". Hawan-one-sixth real size. .. Adze with carved helve, probably from
^Zr^lTLj'^'^\ f, i' °'^ the Marquesas and Society Islai>ds-one-sixth real size. 5. Obsidian
fo,mh re,1 str f I='and-oi>e-third real size. 6. Pair of compasses from the Society Islands-one-
fourth real size, (i, 3, 4, 6, Christy Collection ; .., 5, British Museum. )
falls away at a slant, by means of a string which is first wound round the handle,
then crosswise over the blade and the projection. Much care is devoted to the
THE POLYNESIANS AND MICRONESIANS
209
winding of this string, notably by the
Hervey Islanders ; though, except in
the case of ornamental axes, the handle
is not much smoothed. Of Micro-
nesian axes the greater number have
blades of shell, chiefly from Terebra
maadata and Tridacna gigas ■ the
broad back-bones of tortoises are also
used. Curiously enough the Micro-
nesians, as on Ponap6, overlooked
their admirably adapted stone, never
getting beyond shells. In the Marshall
Islands the adze with semicircular
shell-blade was preferred to the iron
adze for hollowing out canoes. The
polishing of the blade with sand or
pumice is the task of the old men.
Thrusting-spears seem to have
been formerly regarded by the Poly-
nesians as their chief weapon. They
were sometimes made of wood with
the point hardened in the fire ; som,e-
times strengthened with stone blades,
the tail-spine of the sting-ray, splin-
ters of bone, or sharks' teeth. For
a long time they were twice the
height of a man ; where casuarina
wood was lacking coco-palm was
used. Spears were given away with
great reluctance ; they were wrought
and adorned and ornamented with
special care. Spears were equally the
chief weapons of the Micronesians ;
they were armed with barbs made of
sting -ray spines, human bones, the
snout of the garfish, or sharks' teeth,
but they are never so artistic as in
Melanesia. These weapons serve for
thrusting at close quarters : shorter
spears sharpened at both ends were
used for throwing ; a spear thrower
of bamboo is recorded from Pelew.
Purely wood weapons include the
sword of the Pelew Islanders, and
the pahu, or dagger of hard wood, in
Yap of reed, 20 inches or rather
more in length, spatula-shaped in the
handle, and gradually tapering, thence
Maori chiefs insignia and sceptres — one-eighth real size.
(Christy Collection. )
P
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
carried in a sheath of vegetable fibres ; angular stone blades from 8 to 1 6 inches
long afforded ponderous hand weapons.
Next to the spear the chief weapon is the club, generally made from
heavy iron -wood ^f^
Its
ornamentation makes it
an interesting produc-
tion of Polynesian art.
It formed the main
strength of the Tongans,
the most beautifully exe-
cuted type being the
paddle shape, which ap-
pears to have become
obsolete even in Cook's
time, round in the handle,
flattened above, often
brought into a four-
cornered shape by the
strong accentuation of
the middle rib, and either
cut off square at the end
or running out in an
elliptical point. The
whole club from the
handle to the point is
covered with carving,
which either passes
round in one spiral
band, or forms a series
of chequers divided by
the side edges and the
middle ribs, or else laid
over and over each other
in simple cross bands.
The ornaments consist
of straight or zig-zag
lines drawn close to-
gether, a roughly indi-
cated human form being
nearly always present.
' li^aiiy diWctya piCSCilL.
'■■ '^f^^'^. ^"^^ ^"°*' ^^''i '° '°^ ^''°'" 'he Society Islands— one-eighth real size Stars and CrescentS often
(Christy Collection.) 2. W^ooden djurirpi- fmm m«,., v„„i j ...._
(Christy Collection^) 2 Wooden dagger from New 'zealand^'two- aooear aq wpIi" pTfimVrpq
sevenths real size (British Museum). 3. Spear set with sharks' teeth from ^PP^^'^' ^^ ^Cll aS tlgUrCS
the Gilbert Islands — one - fifteenth real size (Munich Ethnographical of fisheS and tOrtoiseS.
Museum). 4. Saw, said to be used also as dagger, of ray-spine from TU 1 11..
Pelew— one-third real size (Berlin Museum). ^ "^7 ^^Ve a shauk tO
,, ... , , , hang them up by. Beside
these richly carved clubs smooth ones are also found quite flat, paddle-shaped with
a ring below the blade, and others of a simple mallet-shape with short handle.
-Paddles of honour" is a name given to paddle-shaped objects 6 feet long and
THE POLYNESIANS AND MICRONESIANS
211
more, either carved in cross bands like the clubs, or sculptured in a fashion which
reminds one of elegantly chipped flint instruments. The Marquesas Islanders
I
I. Wooden swords from Pelew and Hawaii— one-fifth real size (British Museum). 2. Bow and arrow from the
Friendly Islands— one-third real size (Christy Collection). 3. Saw of ray-spine, said to be from Pelew—
one-third real size (British Museum.) 4. Bone spear-head— real size (Christy Collection).
are distinguished in the manufacture of these beautiful clubs ; the blade of their
paddle-shaped clubs, like almost every production of their artistic dexterity, con-
tains a fantastically executed human countenance. But the most beautiful
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Hawaiian wicker-w ork helmet — one fourth real size.
(Berlin Museum. )
paddle -shaped clubs were certainly
made by the Hervey Islanders, who ex-
aggerated the delicate cell-carving of
the Tongans to the verge of the finikin.
The Tahitians and the most closely
allied tribes devoted much trouble to
the polishing of their weapons.
The axes of the Hervey Islanders
with perforated handles, or the over-
elegant clubs of the Tongans, were
obviously designed in the first in-
stance as insignia of rank, and can
only exceptionally have been used
in fighting. The ceremonial axes of
Rarotonga and Tahiti may also have
been originally to some extent in use,
and have been, with their symbolically
worked handles, preserved after the
owner's death as a memorial. Spears
also were converted into tokens of rank ; among these the New Zealand
sceptres of honour were
conspicuous for length
and decoration. They
vary in shape between
staff and paddle, the
simplest being cylindrical
staves with jagged longi-
tudinal lines. They end
in a more or less compli-
cated knob, in the spirals
and twists of which may
always be detected eyes,
or even a human figure.
Axes, pipes, daggers,
flutes, are often in no
way inferior in ornament-
ation to these decorative
objects, and yet they
must have been in use.
They show how the
whole life and action of
Polynesia was imbued in
a dignified manner with
religious images, symbols,
and ceremonies. In the
way of tools we find
sharks' teeth set in a
J u J 1 • Small weapons with sharks' teeth from Tonga, dagger and baler from Hawaii,
WOOaen nanale servmg and gourd bottle from New Caledonia. {Vienna Museum. )
THE POLYNESIANS AND MICRONESIANS 313
for graving tools, also wooden bows with similar teeth at both ends for use in
drawing circles.
Small weapons of sharks' teeth, intended for the cutting up of prisoners,
served to gratify the horrible passion for torture ; and were also employed in
the self-lacerations practised by mourners in token of their grief. Perhaps we
should reckon among these the implement made of the sting of a ray, shown in
the illustration on p. 210, equally available as file or dagger. Weapons of sharks'
teeth reached a fine development in the Society Islands and in Hawaii. The
kind of forked sword made from a three-or-four-forked bough of casuarina, and
set with these teeth, was regarded as the most terrible weapon. The Berlin
Museum possesses a club from Yap, made of the bones of the whale, and set
with rays' spines. The population of the Gilbert or Kingsmill Islands, by con-
sistent progress in this particular direction, acquired a peculiar style in the
manufacture of weapons, demanding both industry and dexterity. One might
suppose they were a powerful race living in a constant state of war. The fitting
of their weapons with sharks' teeth, which were fastened on with strings of coco-nut
fibre twisted with human hair, appears like a further development of the weapon
found among the Malays, consisting of the saw of the saw-fish. The necessary
counterpart to this weapon-making skill is the armour. Closely plaited of string,
coarse and thick, this must have been painfully heavy to wear, but was necessary
if only to weaken the moral effect of the sharks' teeth. A helmet made from the
prickly skin of the Diodon or porcupine fish completed this original equipment.
Bows and arrows were in Cook's time used only for hunting or in sport ; and
now they hardly exist in Micronesia and Polynesia. The bow of the Friendly
Islands, which was only used to shoot rats, is yet a very fine weapon. It is as
high as a man, beautifully made of polished firm wood, and fitted with a strong
twisted string ; but its companion the quiver has quite disappeared, and the
number of arrows is reduced to one. The Pelew natives use, for pigeon-shooting,
bows of mangrove wood with a string of fibre. In New Zealand, language
indicates a former acquaintance with the weapon.
In the Gilbert Islands, Paumotu, and Easter Island, bows are entirely absent ;
and in the Hawaiian group they appear to have been re-introduced only in the
course of the present century. It is, however, incorrect to say that, owing to
the gradual cessation of hunting in these islands with few animals, weapons of
long range held no place in Polynesian strategy. Next t>o the spear and the
javelin the sling is the most frequent Micronesian weapon ; slings of plaited
twine, like those of Melanesia, are known in the Mortlock and Caroline Islands.
Next to them come short thro wing-clubs. In the Marquesas the sling made of
coco-nut fibre, throwing stones, polished or angular, as big as hen's eggs, is among
the most dreaded weapons. Clever slingers were in high esteem, and formed a
special troop in the Tahitian army. At favourable moments they would advance
beyond the mass of the host, and let fly at the enemy with loud shouts.
In many parts of Polynesia the variety of offensive weapons diverted attention
from any care for defensive armour and other means of protection ; battles had
a ceremonial character, and the object of weapons was to make a warrior seem
prouder and more terrible. Unfortunately we have no accurate description of
the Tahitian equipment. The greatest value was attached to the head-dress.
Among the Hawaiians this was an elegant helmet of feather -work ; among
214 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
the tribes of the Austral Islands, of a fantastic shape. To attack the wearer of
a conspicuous head adornment was reckoned a heroic action ; his fall often
decided the engagement. Another article of Tahitian uniform was a collar,
decked with feathers and shells, which served as a breastplate. Parkinson saw
Gilbert Islanders ready for fight, with the hard dried skin of a ray wrapped
round breast and belly under their coco-fibre armour, and on the top of all as
much cordage as could be got on. They themselves, with their ray-spined spear
20 feet long, did not advance, but only stimulated the fighters. In Tongatabu,
Forster found a large flat breastplate made of a round bone, probably that of
some kind of whale ; it was 20 inches in diameter and beautifully polished. The
Marquesan adornment of the same kind consists of pieces of a light cork-like
wood, tied into a half-ring, fastened with resin, and set with red a&rus-heans.
Among poorer races this breastplate seems to be replaced by a shell. In the
flat shell, often ground to a tooth-shape, which many Polynesians wear hanging
on their breasts, we may perhaps recognise a reduced form of this.
§ s. THE NEGROID RACES OF TPIE PACIFIC AND
INDIAN OCEANS
Distribution — Traces of an earlier more extensive distribution in tlie Indian Ocean^Colour ; Skull ; Hair ;
Bodily build ; Resemblance to Negroes— Alleged race of Dwarfs— Relation of Papuas and Negritos-
Misunderstanding of the name Alfurs — Character and mental qualities of the Melanesian population.
Crossing the eastern boundary of Melanesia, we at once come in the Fiji
Islands across a plainly negroid race, the traces of which to the eastv/ard we have
already mentioned (see p. 147 sqq.). Beyond the region defined as Melanesia, it is
found in the interior of India and Ceylon. In the Malay Archipelago it extends
westward as far as Timor ; when we get to Lombok we find Malays. To one
particular group, the Negritos, may be with much probability assigned an extension
to east and north formerly much wider. The inhabitants of the interior of the
Philippines, who live in a state of warfare with the Malays who invade the coast
districts, belong to this group. The Aborigines of the Andamans are nearly akin,
and some profess to point to traces of the race in the Mariannes and in Micronesia.
Qurtrefages found his so-called "Mincopie-Type "even in the Japanese skull, though
in an attenuated form. Remains of negroid tribes are also said to be known in
the interior of Malacca and in India. This dispersed and fragmentary occurrence
of the dark element has suggested to many observers the view that we should see
therein an earlier population of these and neighbouring regions, for which the
continent of Southern Asia formed a bridge between the Indo-Pacific • and the
African domains of the Negro. Upon this the lighter men were superimposed in a
broad layer, leading on the mainland to every possible degree of crossing. Here
also we must guard against any cut-and-dried notions with respect to the relations
of ever-shifting races. The Papuas made forays against Asia, and came in great
numbers as slaves to Ceram and the Eastern part of the Malay Archipelago. In
this way we may explain in some measure those races not woolly-haired, but crisp or
curly-haired, which, starting from Ceram, have made their way among the straight-
haired population. The name Alfuros or Alfurs has nothing to do with these
(i-3) Necklaces of shell and beans, with limpet-shells. (4 and 5) Ear-pendants, with dolphin's teeth. (6 and 7)
Ear-buttons of whale's tooth. (8) Necklace of tortoise-shell. (9) Neck ornament. (10) Necklace. (11)
Wooden fillet for the head. (12) Ear-button made of a ray's vertebra. (13, 14) Armlets of black wood and
whale's tooth. (15) Neck ornament. (16) Necklace of shell-disks and whale's tooth. (1-7, Marquesas ;
8 and 15, Friendly Islands; 9, Hervey Islands; 10, 11, Society Islands; 12, Easter Island; 13, 14,
Hawaii; 16, Nukuor.)
THE NEGROID RACES OF THE PACIFIC AND INDIAN OCEANS 215
Papua-like and Negrito-like elements. Thus, without speaking of the dark races
everywhere as a primitive population, we may at least denote them as probably
the older.
In the colour of the skin dark tints prevail without quite reaching the depth of
much Negro colouring. The nearest to this, perhaps, is the colour of many
Solomon Islanders ; manifold admixtures of lighter elements are the cause of the
frequency of various shading. In Western Fiji, in the New Hebrides, Malicollo,
and New Britain, the dolichocephalic form of skull prevails. The dark crisp-haired
population of negroid exterior in the Malayan Archipelago and New Guinea
are said to be brachycephalic, as are the so-called Mincopies of the Andamans.
According to Krauser the Fijian skull is highly prognathous. At one time it was
alleged that their hair grew in tufts, in which it was sought to find a distinction
from the African Negro ; now it has been discovered that the hair is distributed
pretty evenly over the scalp, and only assumes the tufted appearance when it
New Guinea girl. (From a Photograph in the possession of Herr W. Joost, Berlin.)
becomes long. Individual hairs are coarse, wiry, and of elliptical section ; on the
face and body the hair seems to be stronger than in Negroes.
The frequent occurrence of small individuals is a curious feature in the negroid
population of the Indo-Malayan region. In many tribes they form a decided
majority, and are clearly distinguished from the others. The average height of
the Papuas of New Guinea and the neighbouring islands is between 5 feet 5 inches
and 5 feet 8 inches. The Fijians even, especially in the upper classes, are often
taller than the whites ; on the other hand, for the Andaman Islanders the standard
is from 4 feet 6 inches to 5 feet ; for the Negritos the average is 5 feet. The
measurement among the Kanjhars of South India is for men 5 feet i inch to
S feet 3 inches ; the Veddahs of Ceylon 4 feet 9 inches to 4 feet 1 1 inches ; the
Paliars of Travancore about S feet 3 inches ; the Kardars of the Anamalai
mountains from $ feet i inch to 5 feet 5 inches.
The resemblance to Negroes which predominates in the total of the phenomena
:i6 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
is constanth- being insisted on ; 260 years ago Tasman expressed it by sajing
that they only differed from Kciffirs in having less woolly hair. Observers like
Finsch and D'Albertis take every opportunitj- of rejecting the notion of a special
Papuan race ; the prevailing type of the Melanesiaiis is only a slight variation,
recognisable by the greater abundance of hair on the face and body, and by
peculiarities in the features. In the larger archipelagos the natives displaj- various
departures from the tj-pe which may be referred partly to ]\Ialayo-Polynesian
crossing, partly to the influence of their surroundings. Not to mention Fiji, with
its patchwork of races, the New Hebrides unfold before us a real book of patterns.
On the Southern Islands the inhabitants are better developed than in the north ;
on Tanna they are handsomer, bolder, and of finer character than elsewhere ; on
Api they are lean, ugly, and very tall ; on Erromango they are very short. Even
in maps of the sixteenth century there appear off the coast of New Guinea Islas
de Mala Gente side by side with Islas de Honibres Blancos. Thus it is impossible
to speak of a geographical division of these dark races into one group of eastern
dolichocephalic Papuas and one of western brachycephalic Xeg^tos, for the
conditions under which the latter dwell are even less favourable to the production
of unalloyed characteristics.
With their widespread distribution we shall expect to find them dividing up
into sub-races. Here we are justified in inquiring into the relation which they
hold towards the Australians. Certain points of agreement are obvious —
dark skins, pronounced hairiness, beards ; besides this we have relationship of
language. We maj- admit the variet}- of the Australian race, and that
Australia has probabl}' been invaded by elements from New Guinea and
Polynesia. It is not the case that the woolly-haired Australians are confined to
the north or north-east ; there are many Austra-
lians who come nearer than the Papuas to the
mi.xed Polynesian breed. Independently of the
differences and transitions called into existence by
Polynesian immigration, leanness of the arms and
legs, bad proportions, an ill-nourished condition,
are noticed as approximations to the Australian
t}-pe. Besides this we find also physiognomies
reminding us of Indians, Jews, or Europeans.
Great confusion has arisen from the application
of the name Negritos, especially to the inhabitants
of the Philippines, a mixed dark race with
straight hair. One view with regard to these
^ -__ Negritos may be summarised in the statement
Man of N>«- TrPi=.nH /p .u ^ J ^ '^^^^ ^'^^y ^""^ ^^'^ the most part brown men, with
Man ot .New Ireland. (From the Godefiroy „, 1 / u ,, ,
Album.) curly (seldom woolly) or even straight hair — a
race of the mountains, the forests, and the chase
and departing from the Malayan race-type in respect more of their social and
geographical position than of any anthropological marks.i When the Spaniards
came to the Philippines they found Malays on the coast, Tagals more inland;
and in the mountains, the Aetas, ^\ ho were driven back and decaying. Con-
THE NEGROID RACES OF THE PACIFIC AND INDIAN OCEANS 217
sidering the wide diffusion of Negroid elements, it is not astonishing if they have
mingled in this socially inferior group of races ; they arc found also in other
regions in which both Malayoid and Negroid elements are included. The darker
population in the cast of the Malay Archipelago at least reminds us, in a certain
hybrid character, of the Negritos, as found in Hahnaliera or Gilolo, and the
interior of Great Nicobar. In the Malay Peninsula the Negroid element reappears
more clearly. On other islands of this region, too, we meet with a race,
swarthier than the other inhabitants, slim and tall, with woolly or crisp hair,
living in the mountain districts of the interior. They were known as Harafara
or Alfurs. But if the distinctions between the tribes who have been driven back
into the interior and those who live on the coast are often, even in small islands,
as great as those between
Bushmen and Hottentots,
the effects of social and
political distinctions take
precedence of distinction of
race. The Orang Panggang
and Orang Scmang in the
interior of Malacca are de-
scribed as little men, mostly
dark, with crisp hair. Maclay
compares them with the
Negritos of the Philii)pines,
and speaks of " men of pure
Melanesian blood among
them."
A claim to form a group
by themselves is made also
by the small races diverging
in many respects from the
Papuan type, who live in the
western part of this area of
diffusion. The Andamanese
may pass as their typical
form. The face has a bene-
volent, gentle expression ; the forehead is arched ; the eyes are round, and set
horizontally ; the nose is small and straight ; the lips not strikingly prominent.
In India dark men are numerous, extending far to the north. The assumption
that we have here to do with a great racial struggle in former times has been
strengthened by the poetical exaggerations of tradition, which draws a sharp
contrast between the combatant races, as black and white ; deriding the flat and nose-
less countenances of the dark foe ; and even depicting them as apes. But thorough
research has always tended to lighten the dark colour of this race, and raise their
level of culture. Indeed, the important and talented race called Tamils belong
to this group. Some have thought fit to reckon the blended little race known as
the Veddahs of Ceylon among the most degraded of the earth ; but the more
evidence comes to hand, the clearer it becomes that they are not even so dark
as many Tamils ; that, as regards the face, the distinction is small between them
Fijian lady. ( From Godeffroy Album. )
2l8
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
and the highly-civilized Cingalese ; that their hair is not at all the woolly hair of
the Negro ; and that their language is an Indian dialect full of Sanscrit words, and
alloyed with Dra vidian elements.
Must we then perhaps look for the real negro element in the small crisp-
haired men or black dwarfs
who are said to live in trees
in the Athrumalli mountains
of South India? Jagor has
drawn these tree dwellings
(see p. 1 08), but they only
serve as places of refuge,
otherwise these ill - famed
people live in regular villages.
If in the descriptions of them
it has been again and again
pointed out that they live on
products of the jungle, eat
mice, dwell among the
branches, worship demons ;
nevertheless social debase-
ment and anthropological
degradation remain quite
distinct things, and if the
Kaders, the Nairs, and other
mountain tribes of South
India are depicted as thick-
lipped dwarfs, the example
of the Veddahs shows us how
much these random descrip-
tions can be depended on.
Even the fact that some of these tribes file their teeth to a point, while
others live in polyandry, and observe the Tamil custom of inheritance through
the mother, or that men and youths live separately in one great house, need not
give them any lower a place in our eyes. Traces of these customs run through
all mankind, even the traces of cannibalism in the mountain tribes of Assam are
not astonishing. A more important fact is that some of them have used stone
weapons and utensils even to our own time, and in connection with this we
remember that traces of the Stone Age, probably recent, are found in the whole
region of the eastern Indian ocean, where iron now has the upper hand. Some
of the dark races of India have quite recently made advances which are still
compatible with relics of their former savage forest life. The Santals of Lower
Bengal have not only learnt to till the ground, but have adopted the plough, and
in the course of a century have from hunters and brigands become a peaceful
people of more than a million souls. The Khonds, who dwell farther to the
south, no doubt carry on their agriculture still in a semi-nomadic fashion, some
communities migrating every fourteen years ; but they have become peaceable
and have abandoned their human sacrifices. The 46 million Dravidians of
South India include, beside some poor nomadic tribes, a great majority of races
Fijian gentleman. (From Godeffroy Album. )
THE NEGROID RACES OF THE PACIFIC AND INDIAN OCEANS 219
who may bo reckoned as props of Indian civilization in the same sense as the
Aryans.
The difference between the Melanesian character and the Polynesian has often
been noted. It lies essentially on the Negro side. Their bodily resemblance is
paralleled by a mental one. The Melanesian is more impulsive, more frank,
noisier, and more violent than the Polynesian. In cases where he appears in
less favourable light, the key to many contradictions is to be found in a pride
which at one moment is elated, and at the next has a keen scent for anything
like injury. Those who know the Fijians best depict them as the vainest of all
men. A casual utterance will cause a
woman to sit down in the public place
of a village, shed tears without end, and fill
the air with lamentations and a flood of
scolding and threatening language. The
cry will be heard from the top of a hill,
" War, war ! will no man kill me that I may
go to the shade of my father?" All rush to
the spot and find a man in the depths of
grief because his friend has cut off a yard
or two from a piece of bark cloth belonging
to them in common. Suicide is not uncom-
mon. Closely connected with pride is
swagger, often shown in the compilation of
fantastic pedigrees. The arts of diplomacy
thrive in this soil ; these hot-blooded natures
have a capacity, which one would hardly
suspect, for clothing themselves in an im-
penetrable etiquette. The forms of good
manners are strictly observed.
The frequency of theft is well known,
but it is chiefly directed against strangers.
Native plantations are to natives inviolable ;
yet so powerful a motive is covetousness,
that the plundering of a grave is no uncom-
mon event, even when nothing more than a
few rags is to be got by it. It sometimes happens, however, that a person
caught in the act of committing this crime gets burnt or buried alive.
Revenge may form the most important duty in lifeTor a Melanesian. If a
man is injured he puts up a stick or a stone where he can see it, to keep him
constantly in mind of the duty of revenge. If a man abstains from food or
keeps away from the dance it is a bad sign for his enemies. The man who goes
about with his head half- shaved, or, in addition to this, allows a long twisted
bunch of hair to hang down his back, is thinking of revenge. Sometimes a
bundle of tobacco hangs from the gable, which is only to be smoked over the
corpse of an enemy, or the bloody clothes of a slain relation preserves the
memory of an unatoned deed. Nor is there any lack of friends to keep a man
in mind of his duty with songs either lamenting or censuring. Open violence
is not the only means of appeasing revenge. Hired assassins are employed, or
Woman of the Anchorite's Islands. (From the
Godeffroy Album. )
220
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
magical devices with sticks, leaves, or reeds, are adopted. A dead man often takes
a whole generation with him ; his wives are throttled, and his mother often
shares the same fate. Treacherous and bloodthirsty acts, such as have earned
a bad reputation for the Solomon Islanders in particular, may. often be referred
only to expiation for some injustice suffered. There is no abstract word corre-
sponding to our " Thanks," it is even regarded as good manners for the person
who receives a present not to betray any feeling. People when they meet greet
each other with words like, " You are staying," " Go on " ; rubbing of noses is
only found among the Polynesians, kissing was originally unknown. The Banks
Islanders use as a familiar greeting a sounding smack with the hand.
Woman of the Anchorite's Islands. (From the Godeffroy Album.)
The degrees of activity and prosperity are numerous. In Mallicollo and
New Caledonia the people are poor and lazy. On the other hand those of Fiji
and New Britain are proud of possession and greedy for gain ; quite ready to
beg of strangers, but clever in trade. Our ethnographical museums possess an
astounding wealth of works of art from certain favoured spots ; of which we need
only name Astrolabe Bay and the little D'Entrecasteaux Islands. Though out-
ward appearance is indistinguishable, there are poor people, well-to-do people,
rich, very rich, just as with us. The saying is, as Finsch tells us, " He is worth
ten or more rings of diwarra." We have already contradicted the unfounded
assumption that the Melanesians are an altogether weak, backward-driven group
of races ; and need here only recall a remark of D'Albertis concerning the
inhabitants of Hall Sound in New Guinea, who have come but little into contact
with civilization : " We may have many reasons for calling them savages ; but
they live in a state of relative comfort and good fortune which one might almost
denote as culture."
Dull and barren stupidity does not characterise the mental endowment of the
THE NEGROID RACES OF THE PACIFIC AND INDIAN OCEANS 221
Musical instrument from New Ireland — one-third
real size. (Godeffroy Collection, Leipzig. )
Melanesians. German observers have drawn special attention to the capacity of
the Bismarck Islanders for education. In judging of their intellectual nature we
must overlook neither the acuteness of
their senses nor their inventive faculty.
These " savages " find tools, twine, packing
materials, where the white man is at a
helpless standstill. To their keen prac-
tical eye Nature seems a storehouse of
useful articles, where what they require
at the moment is constantly at hand.
Figurative language is everywhere in use ;
and by means of obsolete or borrowed
words it has attained the position of a
regular poetic dialect. In the Banks Islands
almost every village has its poet or poetess,
whose performances do not remain unrewarded. Death is often referred to as
" sleep," and fluids that have become set as " sleeping " ; they speak of dying as
a sunset, and denote ignorance by " the night
of the spirit." For modesty they employ the
term by which they indicate the
gentle half-tones of evening light.
To reef the sail is to fold the wing.
If their feeling for Nature is less
than might be expected when we
look at their noble landscapes and
their beautiful flowing seas, their
poetry and their
art make free
use of these in
description and
picture.
Apart from
its didactic, pro-
verbial, brief
terms of phrase
which betray
keen observa-
tion and wit
rather than
fancy, Fijian
poetry finds its
most character-
istic expression
in the so-called
Meke, a name
which implies
both song and dance. To only a few elect is it given to invent these ; and
those allege that they are carried in their sleep to the spirit-world, where divine
Spatula for betel-lime from New Guinea — one-half real size,
in New Guinea — one-eighth real size (Christy Collection),
in the New Hebrides (after Codrington).
■2. Drum from Pigville
3. Drums from Amboyna
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
beings teach them a song with the appropriate dance. The ideal of the Fijian
poet is regular measure and every verse ending with the same vowel. This he
seeks to obtain by arbitrary abbreviations and lengthenings, by the use of
expletives, omission of
Cafved coco-nut from New Guinea — one-half real size. (Christy Collection.
general
articles, and other poetical
licenses. Seldom, however,
is a poem achieved like that
recorded by Mr. Williams,
consisting of eighteen verses
all ending in au. In the
historical and legendary
ballads the disposition to-
wards exaggeration often
takes a grotesque form ;
nor are interpolations often
lacking, to bring in some
quite irrelevant bit of
coarseness which for the
public constitutes the main attraction of the poem. The ballads are
chiefly sung at night, with the inevitable dances ; but so great is the love of the
Melanesians for song that they sing at their field-work or when rowing or
walking about. As a rule one sings a verse and the chorus repeats it.
Melanesian music on the whole resembles Polynesian. Musical instruments
are absent only from the smallest islands. The prevalence of the drum in all forms
reminds us of Africa. A small
drum, made from a bamboo with
a slit in it, and beaten with a stick.
is carried especially by the women,
in order to announce their ap-
proach on occasions at which they
are excluded. From New Ire-
land we have a peculiar wooden
instrument from which a vibrat-
ing tone is extracted by drawing
the flat hand along it. The
people of New Britain had pan-pipes varying in size and number of pipes ; Jews'
harps of bamboo are also found in the Solomon Isles. There, too, on festive
occasions, bands composed of twenty men perform, more than half of whom play
wind instruments, reeds fastened twenty-three in a row, and straight flutes of
bamboo some 3 feet long by 2\ inches thick, from which they extract two or
three tones with chords of thirds or fifths. The others beat large bamboo
drums with a stick. The principle of the Melanesian drum is a bamboo cane
or a hollow stem with a narrow slit on the thin edges of which it is beaten.
Each of these drums is one size smaller than the next, and gives a note
different by an octave from that of the next. The flute is forbidden to women,
—indeed superstition says that they die if they see it, and the same with the
bull-roarer. Among the Tugeri a signal whistle is found, made from a small
coco-nut, with several holes bored in it.
New Hebridean ornament (enlarged).
DRESS AND WEAPONS OF THE MELANESIANS
■zi'i
The dances often agree even in details with those of the Polynesians. At
funeral festivities they dance round a drum with a human countenance to represent
the departed. Sometimes the
dancers consider themselves to
be ghosts ; dancing is also a
diversion of ghosts. The indi-
vidual movements consist of
bowings and swayings, or
jumping up and down ; but
they also have mimic war-
dances, executed by two ranks
of men armed with spear and
shield. Masks are worn at
these, and if they are beast
masks we get an idea very like
that of the Dance of Death.
The Melanesians are often
spoken of as among the races
who cannot count beyond
three or five, but numerals for
ten are found everywhere, and
in New Britain the money
reckonings extend to sums
which would make us look for
numbers higher than a hundred.
A kind of knotted cord-writing
and similar aids to notation
are also not absent here.
In the calculation of time and the observation of the heavens, some groups
of the Melanesians have much the same knowledge at their command as the Poly-
nesians have. In New Guinea the year is divided by the changes of the
monsoon ; months and longer periods are distinguished according to the labours
of the field ; but we find also a division according to the position of the Pleiads,
the reappearance of which in the northern heaven betokens the return of spring.
A large number of constellations denoted as the Boat with its Outrigger, the Bow-
bender, the Bird, the Hunting Brothers, serve to obtain bearings in navigation,
and to indicate the time of night. We have already spoken of the navigation of
these races on p. i66.
Of writing we know only traces, in the picture-writing as scratched by the
New Caledonians on bamboo, or engraved by the Fijians as well as the Tongans
in the shape of little figures among the ornamentation of their clubs.
Bit of etched design on a coco-nut, from Babel in the Solomons.
(After Codrington. )
§ 6. DRESS AND WEAPONS OF THE MELANESIANS
Clothing— Tattooing and painting— Dressing of the hair— Ornament— Great number and variety of weapons
— Spears— Clubs — Stone clubs— Axes— Bow and arrow— Smaller weapons— Defensive armour.
The clothing of the Melanesians seems to justify Peschel's law that clothing varies
among men inversely as the darkness of their colour. The darker Melanesians
224
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
are in general less clad than the lighter Polynesians. Their ornament is all the
richer and more various, and the woolly hair especially brings with it a greater
variety of hairdressing. We find men in
Melanesia very scantily clad, and there are
not lacking trustworthy reports of some who
are completely naked. The Adamic costume
of the men in the Banks Islands, however,
standing in sharp contrast to their skill in
weaving mats, places them very low in the
estimation of their neighbours, though among
these also, so far as they are Melanesians,
limited clothing is the rule. Where clothing
is more complete we are sure to find traces of
Polynesian and Malayan
influence. The foundation
of the Melanesian man's
dress is a belt, either
platted or made of bark,
passing from the hips
between the legs ; while
the women wear one or
two aprons of fibre from
grass, palm, or pandanus
leaves. These elements
recur everywhere, and the
idea of what is becoming
and respectable in cloth-
ing is essentially concen-
trated upon them. But
the notions of modesty
are extremely various.
The people of Massilia
on the Finsch coast wear
a broad bark girdle pass-
ing twice round the body
Wigs of human hair worn in battle, from Vanna Levu.
Museum. )
(Frankfort City
Of
Head-dress lilce an eye-shade from New Guinea-
real size. (British Museum.)
a higher kind of dress, which may be called
that of the Polynesian colonies,
Fiji affords the best examples.
Here the tapa material renders
a richer style of clothing possible.
The wrapping which passes be-
tween the thighs is of such
breadth and length that it ex-
tends to a couple of hundred
feet. The usual measure is of 12
to 20 feet ; it is wound several
times round the loins in such a
way that the ends hang down to
-one-fifth
the knee in front, and lower behind. In West Melanesia, also, tapa is indeed
DRESS AND WEAPONS OF THE MELANESIANS
225
made in the Southern Solomon Isles from the paper mulberry ; in the New
Hebrides and New Guinea from the sacred fig-tree. Instead of the printed
pattern, as shown in the cut on p. 183, we here iind the stuff streaked with
colour and moistened with the tongue or teeth.
The tattooing in Melanesia is only in isolated instances of the artistic character
Fiji warrior in a wig. (From the Godeffroy Album. )
found among the Polynesians. It has more affinity with the Australian type of
cicatrised wounds than with the Polynesian punctures, and it is often not applied
until the age of maturity. Among the light-skinned Motus of New Guinea we
find tattooing in patterns recalling those of Micronesia. On the south coast of
New Guinea Miklouho-Maclay found even the shaven scalps of the women covered
with tattooing. Where there are indications of a mixture of Melanesians with
Polynesians, it has been thought that the races may be distinguished according
to their respective methods of tattooing. For example, in the islands off the
eastern point of New Guinea, in the Solomon Islands (where the cicatrised
Q
226
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
tattooing has been observed only in Bougainville, Isabel, and the Southern
Islands), and in New Ireland. Men and women are often differently tattooed :
in girls tattooing indicates that they have reached nubility ; in men, the slaying
of a child is one of the things announced by the tattooing of the breast on one
side. In tattooing, also, East and West Melanesia represent the extremes which
in the central parts are mingled.
In Fiji the puncturing with the four or five-toothed instrument is limited
to women, and in them to par-
ticular parts — the lower part of
the body and the thigh, the
corner of the mouth, and the
finger. It has a religious sugges-
tion, and is enjoined by Ndengei.
But here, too, cicatrices appear in
conjunction with it, produced as a
rule by means of shells. In cer-
tain localities of West Melanesia
the other kinds of tattooing are
almost excluded, or at all events
reduced to a minimum. Among
other mutilations of the body, we
get distinct reports of circumcision
only from New Caledonia, the
southern New Hebrides, and Fiji,
which appears to have been the
starting - point in comparatively
recent times of its extension west-
V/ard. In Finsch Harbour it is
performed with much festivity, the
women being banished into the
forest until their boys' wounds are
healed ; afterwards the patients go
to live there. The custom of
cutting off joints of the finger in
times of mourning or sickness is
almost universal. To go with the
whole or half of the face and the
breast painted with red clay is a
Nose-ornament, breastplate, and arm-ring of boar's tusks from P''^^'-^'^^ Usually Confined tO men,
New Gmnea-one-eighth real size. (Christy Collection.) as also is that of blacking the
crU,^. o 1 .. iM , , , , ^°^^ ^^'^'^ ^ kind of earth which
fmon. th. M ; .^^ '""t ^^^ "°"'" "'^° "■'' occasionally seen blacked;
W fnd K ^ ■" J^ '° ^' " "^" ""^ '"°"'-"'"^- I" ^-lil<- enterprises ,
ace and body are pamted in stripes of ^vhite, yellow, red, and black; in Fiji
this custom has been brought to a high point of art ; the not very cleanly Maclure
i'apuas are reported to smear their bodies with clay.
In Melanesia all hair is sedulously plucked out from the body while the
treatment of the hair of the head with caustic lime is quite as ge^e^al as in
DUESS AND WEAPONS OF THE MELANESIANS 227
Polynesia, at times carried even further. In Fiji the crisp black hair is towzled
up, and great pains are expended upon colouring it with charcoal or lime ; then it
sometimes surrounds the head in a strong turban-like pad, or else reminds the
observer of a full-bottomed wig, as also in New Guinea ; while at times it hangs
down in the form of numerous thin strands or wisps. On the other hand, in the
Anchorite and Solomon Islands the hair is in some cases shaven, in others plaited
into top-knots stuck together with gum, and often coloured red, black, yellow, or
white, but constantly adorned with feathers, flowers, shells, or tastefully ornamented
cones of bamboo. White parrot's feathers stuck on the top of the head are signs
of rank ; in Malicollo the hair is dressed in porcupine fashion, wisps as thick as
the quill of a pigeon's feather being wound round with the bast of a kind of
creeper ; artificial wigs are also prepared from the coloured fibres of plants. In
Fiji, persons of eminence have private hair-curlers, who are occupied for hours
every day in the preparation of the wigs. The geometrical accuracy of the
individual details, the rounded softness of the outlines, the symmetrical dyeing
with shiny black, dark blue, grey, white, red, yellow, have often been mentioned
with eulogy. Beside hairdressing, head-dresses of various descriptions occur ; the
Hattams of New Guinea wear a little cowl with coloured feathers woven in, and
Cook found among the naked New Hebrideans small caps of woven mat. In
Fiji a turban of white masi, from which a piece of cloth falls down at the back,
or two lappets over the ears, is indispensable for a man of rank. Open-work caps
made of a piece of matting adorned with strips of dark bast are customary in New
Ireland and New Hanover ; woven eye-shades are found in New Guinea.
A great part of the wealth of these races consists of ornaments, and since
these find extensive employment as a medium of exchange, trade tends to
increase the production of them. The greatest amount of ornament falls to the
share of the men ; the younger women wear little, the elder go almost unadorned.
For instance, the eye teeth of the dog are held in special esteem among the
Melanesians ; but, while the man covers his entire breastplate with them, the wife
wears at most one or two in her ear. Ears, nose, and lips are bored to receive
ornaments. The Papuas of Hood Bay wear a band of pearls at either end of a
thread which is passed round the head. In Makira, Rietmann saw a young
flying-fox used as a lady's ear-ornament, with one foot attached to the lobe of the
ear. Among the Tugeri, pigs' bones some 8 inches long are worn in the nose.
Polynesian influence is probably to be seen in Sikayana, if, as alleged, nose and
ear ornaments are not in use there. In general, the employment of shells in
ornament diminishes as we proceed eastward. In Fiji, as to some extent even in
New Britain, whales' or cachalots' teeth turn up as the article of ornament or
value that is most in demand. They occur often in entire necklaces. Corre-
sponding to these is the employment in New Britain and elsewhere of shell-money
in the form of gigantic ear-pendants.
Melanesians wear white arm-rings, some 4 inches thick, of Trochus shell ; in
New Guinea these serve the further purpose of receptacles for the cassowary-bone
daggers. They are laboriously ground out on sharp splinters of coral-rock. The
Solomon Islanders wear spiral bands of a liana which comes from Buka, on
the left arm, as a protection against the recoil of the bowstring, and also as
insignia of a chief ; they wear, too, combs made of the stiff reddish-brown stalks
of a grass, woven together with fibre in elegant patterns. Feather -ornament
228
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
displays great luxuriance in New Hanover, and much taste is shown in the
combination of forms and colours with vegetable fibres and beads on sticks. For
example, a delicately-formed face in feather-mosaic will be seen forming the head
of a hairpin. In New Guinea the work is on a larger scale, and loses in elegance,
even when it consists of an entire bird of paradise on a stick, as is found at
Astrolabe Bay. In Tagai, pouches of varnished palm-leaf are made to preserve
these costly adornments. Favourite gauds in Simbo, Ulakua, Choiseul, and
Guadalcanar are plaited frontlets with large white shells, or chains similarly worn
of porpoise's or dog's teeth. A rosette of yellow and red cockatoo or parrot-
Shell plaques for adorning the breast and forehead i From the Solomon Islands — one-third real size
the Admiralty Islands — one-fourth real size. (Christy Collection. )
From
feathers, frequently smartened with shells, is bound on the forehead, and serves at
once for ornament and for defence ; it often consists of a thin polished piece of
Tridacna gigas, on which is laid a piece of open work in tortoise-shell. Among
the Admiralty Islanders disks of shell appear in great numbers as breastplates,
hung from the neck. Both in form and material these ornaments testify to great
assiduity, to which the high esteem in which they are held corresponds. They
extend from Madagascar to Hawaii, and have found their way into the heart of
Africa. From them taste evolves every sort of combination. Simple necklaces,
plaited , from variegated straw or bast-fibres, or made from teeth, even human
teeth, berries, fruits, and so forth, are found, as well as more costly kinds.
Among New Guinea ornaments boar's teeth play the most prominent part ; in
DRESS AND WEAPONS OF THE MELANESIANS 229
the northern parts of the island the naturally-curved tusks being the decorative
objects most in demand. Compared vi^ith these the neck-threads of plaited grass,
even with small shells or seeds strung on them, are inconspicuous ; but the chains
of human teeth, dogs' incisors, or cut shells often produce quite an elegant effect.
In the Solomons, chains consisting of twenty to twenty -five pieces of various
coloured shells, mingled with human teeth, or of little shells strung at regular
distances on coco-nut fibre, are highly esteemed. In these instances the transi-
tion from ornament to currency is not remote. On Florida, in the Solomons,
a string of red, white, and black shells seven yards long or so is the price of a
wife. At Finsch Harbour beads of small polished snail-shells are worn round
the neck, in New Britain round the hips, in the Admiralty Islands as aprons.
Finger-rings of silver, pinchbeck, or gilt brass have been introduced by traders.
The Solomon Islanders carry tobacco and other small articles in their plaited
arm -bands; while in Nissan the people invariably carry their betel -lime in a
small coco-nut or gourd fastened by a short string to the left little finger.
Men are seldom seen in Melanesia without weapons. Every group of islands
has its own patterns, though the actual weapons — spear, bow, and club — are
everywhere the same. They are, however, unequally distributed, or else other
weapons of more limited distribution occur. The weapons of Melanesia
unquestionably are some of the choicest productions of dexterity and taste found
among the lower races, as our plate of Melanesian and Micronesian weapons and
utensils will show. Their neatness, variety of form, and actual number are
wonderful. It is an unexplained departure from the rule that, on the single island
of Api or Tasika in the New Hebrides, no weapons are carried.
In Melanesia, again, the most esteemed and most generally-used weapon is
the spear, the forms of which, as Strauch says when speaking of the Admiralty
Islands, are as various as the faces of the inhabitants. Plain but carefully-worked
javelins, as found in New Caledonia, may be regarded as the simplest representa-
tives of this weapon ; thongs of plaited tapa are used in the manipulation of them.
But the most finished productions of the New Caledonian armourers belong equally
to the spear-class. Curiously enough it is not the " business end " of the weapon,
but the shaft, to which the greatest attention is devoted. The fundamental type
remains a staff, reaching sometimes a length of 10 feet, and pointed at both ends.
The modifications consist merely in the addition of a carved human head, repeated
as often as four times, below the point ; or in wrapping the shaft in the same
region with whitish tapa or bat's hair ; a stick wound with string, and with a long
string attached to it, is bound into this ; while, in addition to the wooden point, a
ray's spine is let in to form a secondary point. In New Britain they wind simple
bast round it, and attach a tassel of vegetable fibre, ornamented with feathers.
The butt is sometimes provided with a hexagonal knob, or terminated with the
bone of a cassowary or a man. Of these spears there are two of larger size
intended for throwing. In New Ireland the brown polished carved kind are more
frequent than in New Hanover, and near Port Sulphur we meet with spears
decked with feathers and human bones like those of New Britain. As a rule
the spears are slim and pliant ; but a broadening of the head, accompanied with
perforation, occurs, especially in Fiji, under various patterns. On the whole,
however, where the spear is ornamented the head remains simple. Here, again,
the Solomon Islands show the most advanced development. Besides spears
230
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Weapons from the Admiralty Islands : ., 2. Spears with obsidian
heads. 3. Javehn with the same. 4-8. Spear heads, g-n
Obsidian knives. 12. Knife of mother-of-pearl shell
tenth, 4-12, one-sixth of real size. (Christy Collection.
-3, one-
ornamented with pieces of
mother-of-pearl fixed in mastic,
the islanders have their spear-
heads artistically carved from
human arm-bones or the lower
jaw of the toucan. New
Guinea possesses both spears
pointed with cassowary bone
and simple sharpened shafts.
The former are heavy war-
weapons, for thrusting, lo feet
long or more ; the latter light,
and intended chiefly for fishing.
Unornamented spears with
points toothed like saws,
either two or four-edged, repre-
sent hunting or fishing imple-
ments rather than . warlike
weapons, and form the transi-
tion to the fish-spears with four
or five barbs, attached to a
heavy, roughly -worked shaft
by means of plaited palm-
fibres. Spears with opposite
rows of barbs occur only in
Fiji and the New Hebrides.
There the heads are perforated,
forked, jagged, wavy, lami-
nated— in a word, wrought
into every sort of shape. Fre-
quently they consist from end
to end of fine wood, which
exactly in the heaviest places
is carved into a piece barely
attached. Spears of this kind
are intended more as orna-
mental weapons, to gratify the
bearer's pride, than for the foe.
In the Admiralty Islands
the abundance of obsidian and
bitumen affords the means for
a development in the manu-
facture of stone weapons,
which in one direction supple-
ments the general level at
which the inhabitants of New
Guinea and the neighbouring
islands stand in respect of this
DRESS AND WEAPONS OF THE MELANESIANS
231
art. Here, too, spears have reached an extraordinary perfection. The head
consists always of the choicest pieces of a granular striped basalt, and is attached
to the shaft by means of a copious layer, of bitumen and string wound close with
great care. The bitumen bed which gradually thins off towards the handle is
either decorated in simple geometrical lines with the spaces coloured black, red,
and white, and set with little
shells, or perforated with a
diamond - shaped opening.
The shaft is always rough,
just as it grew on the tree,
and frequently weak also.
From New Caledonia to the
New Hebrides, the Fiji
Islands, and from New
Guinea, we get missile
spears with long points of
hard wood or bone. On
the shaft we may often
notice appendages which
may be of use in hurling it.
In some parts of New
Guinea, as Venus Point,
Hatzfeld Harbour, and up
the Empress Augusta river,
we find throwing - sticks.
The throwing-thong of New
Caledonia arises from the
same idea.
Clubs are among the
most popular weapons in
Melanesia ; like the spears,
they find their greatest
development in the east-
ward islands, particularly
in Fiji and the Solomons.
Certain parts of New Guinea,
as Maclure Gulf, possess no
clubs. These weapons serve
for striking or for guarding
arrows and javelins, and in
general they form the accompaniment of every expedition. Hence their double
position as insignia of rank and weapons. They are often so heavy and shape-
less, and yet wrought with such an expenditure of labour, patience, and ingenuity,
that they must be intended for some purposes other than fighting only. The clubs
of celebrated warriors in Fiji used to have names of honour or pet names ; in their
shapes some seem to be connected with the four-edged Tongan type, others with
the paddle-shaped weapons of Tonga and Samoa. A peculiar form is the
imitation of a flint musket, lock and all ; another is a point projecting from a
New Caledonian clubs, and a painted dance club (a) from the New
Hebrides. (Vienna Museum. )
232 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
prickly fruit. In New Caledonia the most frequent form of club is the simplest,
namely a bludgeon merely taken from a kn9tty branch. The first stage towards
finishing lies in the making of a sharp edge round the knob, the next in childish
striped ornaments ; or a favourite plan is to jag the end in a star shape. A
peculiar club is one in the shape of a bird's head, which here replaces that used
in Mota to open bread-fruit. But in all an easily recognisable difference from
those of Fiji and Tonga is formed by the grip which thickens abruptly at the
handle end. Together with this goes the splicing of the handle with string, ribbon,
palm fibres, even dry fern. In the case of the richest or most distinguished
persons the throwing-cords are fitted with reddish brown knots. This ulti-
mately led to the reddish brown shaggy ornament as found also on spears. In
recent times it has been imitated by means of imported red wool, even by
miserable shreds of cotton, a melancholy symbol of the decay of the old glory of
the Kanakas. The clubs in the Solomon Islands depart very little from the
paddle form ; they have a projecting middle line resembling the rib of a leaf, and
a handle with a shoulder. Further decorations, such as ears at the sides of the
paddle blade, or a sharper shoulder where this passes into the shaft, are of a
modest character. Another type has arisen through the bending of the blade
whereby either the middle rib is thrown into strong prominence, or an opportunity
is given for more delicate ornamentation by means of zig-zag lines, or a spike-like
angle juts out from the vertex of the curve. The handles are decorated with
ornaments of every kind, carvings of squatting idols, pretty woven work of coloured
bast in tasteful patterns; while in the flat straight clubs the blade is polished,
smooth and sharpened at both edges, and the handle bound. Clubs from the New
Hebrides have a plaited sling, so that they can be carried over the shoulder ; while
in New Britain we find rings of fibre or plaiting which are said to be mementos of
slain enemies. In New Guinea and New Britain we meet with a weapon like a
" morning star," half club, half axe ; upon a sharpened staff, a yard long, a disk-
shaped stone is fitted near the upper end, and above this a bunch of red and yellow
feathers. This reminds us of the star-shaped stones with a hole through them
found in Peru ; besides these, clubs occur without a stone ; others have a three-
cornered sharp-cut head. There are also round ones of black heavy polished
wood, with engraved ornamentation about the head ; and flat ones made of an
equally heavy browner wood cut into the shape of a spoon handle.
The Melanesian axes are not perforated, and remind us also in their shape
of the Polynesian stone blades. They are often beautifully ground. They are
often fastened upon or into the helve by regular crossed layers of rush or string,
but sometimes, especially ia West Melanesia, the helve itself is perforated and
so a new form arises with the blade as a rule narrower and rounder. Besides
stone, shell also occurs in a similar shape as a material for the blade in Santa
Cruz and New Guinea, in the Torres and Banks Islands. Iron was no doubt
occasionally imported before the European epoch ; and in western New Guinea
intercourse with the Malays has made it common. How quickly it takes hold
we may learn from the fact that from New Guinea to Fiji, up to the present day,
no article of trade is in such demand. It is interesting also to notice that even
the natives who have only been for a few years in frequent contact with Europeans,
imitate the iron axe in wood, even to the trade mark, while their stone axes have
lost the handle, and have been degraded to the rank of pestles. In a similar
WEAPONS AND UTENSILS FROM MELANESIA AND MICRONESIA.
3-
J.
7,8.
9-
lO, n.
12, 13.
Obsidian jAvelin : Admiralty Is-
lands.
Paddle : Solomon Islands.
Chief's spear: New Caledonia.
Mancatcner : New Guinea.
Lances : New Britain^ (The handle
of S is made of bone, probably
that of the cassowary.)
Arrows : Humboldt Bay. _
War mask : New Caledonia.
Arrows : Humboldt Bay.
Lances : New Hanover, (iz of
bamboo.)
14. Spear with j>oint of cassowary bone:
New Guinea.
15. Mace used in dances : Bougatn'
ville.
16. Sword-club : New Britain.
17. Club, handle covered with grass
matting : Solomon Islandsv
18. Obsidian javelin : Admiralty Is-
lands.
19. Jade axe : New Caledonia.
20. Breast ornament : New Caledonia.
2X. Necklace of cachalot's teeth: Fiji.
22. Breast ornament : Humboldt
Bay.
23. Prickly helmet : Kingsmill Is-
lands. 1 <iue4a
24,25,26. Masks: New Ireland. '(sSwea
as decoration of a tenmleji
C7. Mat with woven patterh': 'Mort-
lock Island in the Carolines.
28. Calabash for betel-lime i Ad-
miralty Islands.
29. Frontlet : New Guinea*
30. Cap : New Caledonia.
Printed try the Bibliograplusclies Instttut. leipzig
WEAPONS AND UTENSILS FROM MELANESIA AND MICRONESIA.
DRESS AND WEAPONS OF THE MELANESIANS
233
way must have arisen the musket
shape for clubs and the like. In
some axes the blade is set at an angle
with a view to more convenient work-
ing when hewing out the interior of
the canoes. Fijian axes are in the
Polynesian style, but not so large. In
the New Hebrides and the Solomons
we have smaller wedge-shaped rounded
stone hatchets, sometimes wider, some-
times narrower, tending in one place
to the oval, in another to the triangular
shape. In Isabel and San Christoval
the blades are from 2 J to 8 inches
long, of a greenish gray colour, tri-
angular or tongue -shaped, with a
ground edge. The tongue and oval
shapes appear in an extreme form in
New Caledonia. For the broad and
quite circular hatchets jade afforded
the material. Artistically pretty pat-
terns are either stitched or woven into
the binding of the handles. New
Ireland has ceremonial axes with
beautifully carved helves.
Bows and arrows are frequent but
not universal. With some gaps in its
■
Bow from the Solomon Islands (Berlin Museum).
Guinea — one-tenth real size (Christy Collection).
(Godeffroy Collection, Leipzig).
n. Bow and arrows from North-west New
3. Arrow-heads from the Solomon Islands
,^4 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
distribution, the possession of the bow distinguishes the Melanesians from their
neighbours to north, east, and south ; yet without entitling us to speak of the
bow as a characteristic of the Papuan race. The forms are like those of Eastern
" Indonesia." They are long bows with strong, slightly bent, often fluted, staves
of bamboo or palm-wood ; the string of vegetable material, usually rattan is
firmly looped to the ornamental end, and fastened in New Guinea with a pad of
rattan in the Solomon Islands with resin. In New Ireland and New Caledonia bows
and arrows are not in use ; but in New Britain, Port Sulphur, the southern islands
of the Solomon group, the New Hebrides, the Banks and Loyalty Islands, they
are known, and in some
parts are common. In the
New Hebrides especially
they are highly developed.
The arrows of the Solomon
Islanders are the finest
of any. They are made
; of a reed, with a head of
hard wood, either simply
Dagger of cassowary bone, from North-west New Guinea— one-fourth real ^,„^^^„^j .„ „ t^nmf
size. (Christy Collection.) sharpened to a point
or else artistically carved
into barbs of wood, bone, or teeth, in imitation of the spear-heads. The shaft is
decorated with elegant hatched work, put on so as artfully to indicate the knots in
the reed. The place where head and shaft join is bound with bast, the point fre-
quently covered with a yellow wrapping, it is said, to denote that it is poisoned.
It is a curious instance of division of labour that all the beautifully wrought
arrows of the Solomons are carried from the little island of Nissan in the extreme
coast of the group, together with pigs, to Buka, and thence traded off for boats,
arrows, and earthenware. In Ugi and Biu near San Christoval arrows are used
having rings of palm-leaf at the butt-end of the shaft, and no notch to take the
string. In the Admiralty Islands small arrow-like javelins are hurled with a
thong. A Melanesian bow of uncertain origin in the Vienna Museum is bound
with bast at both ends, to prevent the string from slipping; this being made of
t^\isted liana and strengthened in the middle with bark. We are reminded of the
rattan pads in New Guinea bows.
As a rule the arrow-head is smooth, but barbs are also met with ; in fish-arrows
as many as four. From this to fish-spears is a short step. Arrows with a shell
for head are used in Malayta to stun birds. In the Banks Islands ornamental
arrows serve as a medium of exchange. Somewhat exceptional is a quiver of
bark and rattan -plait from New Guinea. Poisoning of arrows is believed to
occur. In the New Hebrides cadaveric poisons and euphorbia juice are used,
while in New Guinea the Hattams smear their arrow-heads with a dark brown
vegetable poison called umla ; which, however, must not be confused with the
use of resin as a protective varnish for wooden arrows. Experiments with
poisoned arrows have often failed to produce any result, and in many cases the
" poisoning " must be regarded only as a magical rite. Deadly effects are also
ascribed to arrow-heads of human bone, and orders for these articles are still
given freely. One of the appliances of archery in the New Hebrides is a wooden
hand-guard some 5 inches broad. This is slipped over the wrist like a ring, and
DRESS AND WEAPONS OF THE MELANESIANS
235
protects the hand from the recoil of the bow-string. The spiral liana bandages
a foot long used in Buka, and the plaited " braces " covering half the forearm
found on the Fly River, doubtless have the same purpose ; while the braces and
greaves of plaited bast in the Anchorite Islands are as much ornamental as pro-
tective.
The natives of New Britain, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, and Fiji, use
slings for missile purposes. In New Caledonia and Niue the carefully wrought
sling-stones, of a pointed oval shape, are carried in a net bag, fastened at the
• 1. Carved dance-shield from east New Guinea — one-fifth real size. 2. Shield from Teste in New Guinea —
one-tenth real size. (Christy Collection. )
lower end by buttons, and hence easily emptied. The sling is a simple cord,
doubled in the middle to form a seat for the stone. It is unknown in New
Ireland and the Solomons ; while in Tanna the boys use slings where their elders
employ bows and spears. The Fijians have also short throwing-clubs, with a
deeply shouldered head, like the induku of the Kaffirs. The killing-clubs of
Malayta are stronger weapons of the same kind, having a carved handle, with a
lump of pyrites at the lower end contained in a web of bast. To this class'
belong the instruments like staves, over a yard long, used in New Caledonia,
originally nothing but pointed cudgels with a grip for the hand.
Even before the age of iron, knives and daggers were used in hand-to-hand fight-
ing, either formed of broken-off spear-heads or poniards of bone. Those from the
I. Wooden shield, bound w'nh plaited rattan,
with black and white pattern, froni
Friedrich-^\'ilhelm■s Harbour. 2. Carved
shield from Hatzfeld Harbour. 3.
Wooden battle-shield from Astrolabe Bay!
f/J 4- Wooden battle-shield from Tro-
briand. 5. Motu-motu shield from
I'reshwater Bay. One-twelfth real
size. (Berlin Museum of Eth-
nology. )
DJiESS AND WEAPONS OF THE MELANESIANS 237
Admiralty Islands are conspicuous by their breadth at the point where the blade
passes into the artistically engraved handle. The so-called daggers made of ray-
stings are really files. Not uncommonly the handle itself is pointed like a
dagger. The poniards of bird-bone (mostly a cassowary's leg-bone), frequent in
New Guinea and the neighbourhood, are simple enough ; the thick end with the
joint serves as grip, the other being split and worked to a point. Ornament is
rare, and limited to very simple scratched work, owing to the hardness of the
bone. A finish, rare among races in this stage, is given by wrapping spear-heads
and knife-blades in sheaths of palm-spathe, as shown in the cut on p. 230. In
conclusion we may mention the caltrops, used in Fiji and New Guinea, made of
sharp splinters of bamboo stuck in the ground.
The employment of defensive arms is limited. In Fiji, the New Hebrides,
New Ireland, New Hanover, and the Admiralty Isles, shields are wholly absent.
Among the Solomon Islanders we first meet with elongated shields of plaited
reed or bamboo ; the reeds placed longitudinally and woven together with fibre,
while decorative patterns are woven in with black fibre, and pieces of mother-of-
pearl often applied in regular figures. The grip and guards for the hands at
the back are made of strips of palm-leaf. An extraordinary development,
reminding us of Central Africa, is found in the shields of eastern New Guinea
and the islands to the east, where specimens occur of great size, weighing up to
22 lbs. and beautifully decorated ; circular, oval, or rectangular, flat or hollow,
made of wood or plaited, together with the narrow Malayan kind from Salawatti.
The ornamentation is original, being sometimes symmetrical, sometimes the reverse.
The narrow Moluccan shields with shell-trimming have been imported, but have
spread no further. Cuirasses are found on the north and south coasts of New
Guinea.
No race possesses such a luxuriance of fancy in the case of weapons
and similar articles whose purpose is narrowly limited. In the ceremonial
axes of New Ireland the stone blade completely disappears beneath the acces-
sories ; faces, lizards, birds, remind us of the masks coming from the same
region. Social relations, religion, festivals, partially explain this ; they presume
the existence of numerous insignia of rank, and as may be easily understood,
weapons were the first things selected for this purpose. Much feeling for form,
much industry must have gone to the making of the decorative axes from the
D'Entrecasteaux Islands, shown on p. 182, with their large finely-ground stone
blades. Without a comparative survey of allied objects, it would often be
impossible, even in the case of those which by reason of their curves or sharper
indentations look like flaming swords or horrible instruments of torture, to
decide whether these weapons were evolved from clubs, paddles, or swords. But
when the passion for ornament assumes such dimensions as we see in the repre-
sentation on p. 235 of a carved wooden shield froni New Guinea, we are reminded
of the exuberant fancy of nature in shaping sea-monsters or creeping plants.
There is all the flavour of the tropics in them.
238 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
§ 7. LABOUR, DWELLINGS, AND FOOD IN OCEANIA
Similarities and coincidences in labour and implements of labour — Hunting and fishing — Agriculture and its
implements — Food and stimulants, betel, kava, tobacco — Architecture and plan of villages
As good wood-carvers the Micronesians surpass many of their kindred in the
East Pacific Islands. They know the trick of patiently adding to their dishes
coat after coat of resinous lacquer till a durable skin is formed. Their wooden
ware consists of plates, bowls, and great dishes, all painted a beautiful red, and inlaid
with mother-of-pearl ; flat plates and deep bowls are found in the very poorest
abodes. The people of Fakaafo carved cylindrical boxes out of single pieces of
wood, with covers or even close-fitting lids, in which they keep their fishing-
tackle. In Pelew every native is expert in the handling of his little axe ; but
house and boat-building is carried out by masters in the craft. This multifarious
Wooden dish from Hawaii. (British Museum. )
dexterity of the Micronesians is the point where the introduction of European
goods has caused the greatest falling off.
But the productions of Polynesia also testify to great handiness, and expert
craftsmen hold a good position. In Tonga and Samoa carpenters are regarded
as artists, and form a guild with sacerdotal rank. The perfection of the methods
of labour led to the division of labour. Thus in Hawaii there were builders and
roofers, boat -builders and carvers, whose productions were articles of trade.
Armourers and net-makers sometimes also formed separate trades. Cook notices
the chiefs' «z/«-cups as the most remarkable pieces of carved work in " Owhyhee '' ;
they are perfectly round, 8 to 12 inches in diameter, and beautifully polished,
and have little human figures in various attitudes as supporters. Quite a peculiar
style of execution appears in a Hermes-shaped idol from Hawaii, now in the
Berlin Museum, made almost in life-size from the wood of the bread-fruit tree,
with pegs of hard wood let in forming dots. It is quite a mistake to assert that
the Polynesians have no pottery. The Easter Islanders are skilful at it. On
Namoka, Cook found earthenware pots, which seemed to have been long in use,
and the Tonga group produces porous vessels. In Micronesia, too, pottery has
been known from early times.
LABOUR, DWELLINGS, AND FOOD IN OCEANIA
239
Of the mode in which the bark-cloth, known as tapa or gnatu, is prepared
Mariner gives the following account : A circular cut is made with a shell in the
bark above the root of the tree ; the tree is broken off, and in a few days, when the
stem is half-dry, the bark and bast are separated from it. The bast is then cleaned
and macerated in water, after which it is beaten with the ribbed club on a wooden
block. This beating enlivens a village in Tonga as threshing does in Europe.
In half an hour the piece will have changed in shape from a strip almost to a
square. The edges are snipped with shells, and a large number of the pieces
are drawn separately over a semi-cylindrical wooden stamp, on which the pattern,
worked in coco-fibre, is stretched and smeared with a fluid at once adhesive and
colouring. On each a second and third layer is placed ; and the piece, three
layers thick, is coloured more strongly in the parts which are thrown into relief
by the inequalities of the bed. Others are annexed to it both at the side and
...^a
Mats from Tongatabu. (Vienna Ethnographical Museum.)
the end, until pieces a yard wide, and 20 to 25 yards long, are produced. For
printing their kapa (as they call it) the Hawaiians used sticks broadened at the
end, and carved with figures in relief, and drew lines on the stuff with a wooden
comb. Some of the most remarkable patterns of Polynesian tapa from that
portion of Cook's collection which is now at Vienna, are represented on our
coloured plate. The tints are black, white, and reddish brown ; the patterns,
with the exception of a dotted one which seldom occurs, are rectilinear. European
influence has unluckily not improved them. Mats from the Gilberts and
Marshalls show a special pattern for each island,^ displaying a relatively good
standard of taste. The women of Micronesia, in Ruk, Mortlock, and Nukuor,
weave a fabric from the fibres of a Musa and a Hibiscus. The looms, or rather
frames, are like those of the Malays. The Gilbert and Marshall Islanders are
clever at weaving mats ; the inhabitants of Ponape sew their mats ; the women
of Ponap^ understand basket-weaving, while the ropes which their husbands make
from coco-fibre are famous. From the Gilbert Islands come charming covered
baskets and fans of different sorts. The long tough fibres of the PJiormium ienax,
which grows from 6 to 10 feet high, stimulated the Maoris to the weaving of
mats, affording a substitute for tapa of many and various descriptions. Bast
' [So to this day many Alpine valleys have their own pattern for home-spun and home-woven cloth, recog-
nised sometimes even in quite remote districts.]
240
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Stone pestles from Hawaii — one-fourth real size.
Vienna Museum. )
(Cook Collection,
mats with borders of feathers woven in are made in Samoa. Cook brought
some of the prettiest plaited work from the Tonga Islands : pouches, wooden
vessels covered with plaited work and the like ; large mats are designed with
stripes of dark-coloured bast and adorned with trimmings woven on. A charac-
teristic Tongan object is
the fly whisk, which is at
the same time one of the
king's insignia. The fans
of plaited bast also show
pretty shapes ; they belong
to the toilet of Polynesians
of all ages. A great
variety of straw plaiting
is produced at present in
Hawaii. Interesting also
are the netting needles, one
of which exists in the Cook
collection at Vienna, with
a net of human hair still
wound round it. A strong
wooden needle, some i6
inches long, with an eye, was used for the same purpose. For ornaments,
mother-of-pearl was the favourite material to work ; it makes a particularly vivid
impression when it is employed in glittering natural beads, or lies in broad plates
on the breast. Tortoise-
shell is split into discs
of extraordinary thin-
ness, while valuable
chains and girdles are
composed of the coloured
opercula of certain shells.
The laborious putting
together of them from
numerous small pieces
is a particularly favourite
task. Feather -weaving
reaches its highest pitch
in Hawaii. One might
say that in the case of
the hideous feathered
idols of the Sandwich
Islands the work is much
' too fine in comparison with their ugliness. The red feathered head shown in the
coloured plate of Polynesian ornaments, with its wide skate's mouth full of teeth
and goggle eyes, is made of plaited reeds and string, into which thousands of
little red and yellow feathers are so cleverly worked in tufts that they quite con-
ceal the substratum. The red feathers on the Greek-shaped helmets are from
Depranis coccinea, the yellow from Moho fasciculatus.
Earthenware vessels from the Fiji Islands.
Leipzig. )
(Godeffroy Collection,
LABOUR, DWELLINGS, AND FOOD IN OCEANIA
241
Among the household utensils of the Hawaiians are pestles called penu, 5 to
8 inches high, made of basalt, smooth and beautifully worked, with a flat rubbing-
sUrface and handles of various shapes. With these bread-fruit, taro, and bananas
are ground, on a block having four feet and the upper side slightly hollowed.
Primitive oil lamps are formed of conical bowls hollowed out in lava. Lastly,
we must mention the preparation of the turmeric powder, to which is ascribed
an importance amounting to sanctity as an embellishment for body, clothing,
and utensils. In Nukuor the roots are ground by four to six women in special
public buildings, they are then allowed to stand in water ; on the following
morning three young coco -nuts and three old soma nuts are offered by a
priestess with prayer, after which the dye which has settled down in the water is
Carved spatulas for betel-lime from Dorey in New Guinea — two-sevenths real size. (Christy Collection
collected, baked into cakes in coco-nut moulds, wrapped in banana leaves, and
hung up in the huts till required for use.
The industrial activity of the Melanes,ians is in some points behind, in many
others in advance of that of the Polynesians. Weapons reach their highest
development in the Solomon Islands ; the artistically beautiful spears of Fauro
have been spoken of with full justice. New Caledonia, parts of New Guinea,
and the Admiralty Islands hold in many respects a lower position ; while many
natives of the southern and central Pacific have no knowledge of pottery. From
New Guinea to the Fiji Islands vessels are freely made of clay mixed with sand.
This art is absent in New Ireland and New Britain, but reaches its highest point
in Fiji. Finsch mentions villages on Hall Sound in New Guinea, where one
stock understands pottery and another does not. On the north coast Bilibili
does a thriving trade as the centre of this industry in Astrolabe Bay by exporting
its manufactures. In the New Hebrides the potter's art must have died out ;
in Vate not one complete pot is now to be found, but only potsherds. This
R
Utensils from Hawaii (Arning Collection, Berlin Museum) : i. Calabash-carrier of coco-nut fibre, .i, 3. Cali
bashes with pattern burnt in, stoppered with conus shells. 4. Beaters of *n««7fl wood. 5. Stamping stici
for tapa. 6. Oil lamps of lava. 7. Decoration for chiefs, a sling of human hair with carved cachalol
tooth. 8. Necklace of similar teeth from Fiji. 9-12. Straw plaiting, probably a modern importatio:
1-8, one-fifth to one-si.xth ; 9-12, one-half real size.
LABOUR, DWELLINGS, AND FOOD IN OCEANIA 243
retrogression has been set down to the immigrating Polynesians, who have
introduced the custom of cooking with hot stones. The highest points to which
the earthenware industry has developed are found in New Guinea and the Fiji
Islands, which are precisely the extreme points of its distribution. The Mela-
nesians do not know the potter's wheel, but they burn their vessels cleverly in the
open with dry grass and reeds. The Fijian tools are a ring-shaped cushion (in New
Guinea the upper part of an old pot), a flat round stone, and four wooden mallets.
With this they make vessels which are quite as symmetrically formed as on the
wheel. A shining glaze is given by rubbing them with resin while still hot.
In New Guinea pots are painted black, white, and red, with figures of birds and
fish ; the shapes have extraordinary variety. The cooking vessels are simple but
elegant urns, sometimes of considerable size. Ornamented covers are not un-
common, handles at the side are never found. Among the smaller drinking vessels
are found some made of two or three fastened together, with separate spouts, and
having also a common spout in the hollow handle ; also oval and spindle-shaped
flasks with one opening, and boat-shaped ones with two. The decoration consists
of impressed dotted or zig-zag lines and ribs, which Finsch, from his observations
in New Guinea, states to be trade marks. Pots the size of casks are used there
to keep sago. The wonderful wealth of forms is based not so much on recollec-
tion of the very similar South American shapes as on immediate imitation of
Nature. Here, as among almost all races, the task of making pots is left to the
women, and it is only the wives of fishermen and sailors who appear to devote
themselves to it. May we see in this a case of migratory industrial tribes
resembling the smiths of Africa ?
Bark-cloth is prepared in all the Melanesian groups. Besides the paper
mulberry, which is cultivated, the following trees supply the bast : Ficus prolixa,
F. tinctoria, and Artocarpus incisus. The loom is unknown ; the woven stuffs
from New Guinea found in our collections seem to be a Malay importation.
In New Guinea they merely beat soft the bast stripped off the india-rubber
tree; but Fiji produces pieces 150 yards long, of stuff coloured in patterns, by
means of the blocks shown on p. 183. It is hard to say how far to the westward
the Polynesian and Fijian method of preparing tapa extends, since it is an article
of trade. In New Britain the tapa is thicker, and obviously more coarsely
manufactured ; nor is it printed, but painted, so that, as in New Guinea, the
patterns are larger and more continuous throughout the stuff, from being drawn
and not impressed. The use of a rule, too, permits the designing of wonderfully
regular squares.
The art of plaiting is diligently practised. For the coarser mats coco-nut fibre
is employed ; for the finer, pandanus leaves and rushes. An intelligent Fijian can
always tell you from which island a mat came. The coarser kinds are used as
floorcloths and hangings to the huts ; the finer as sails, or sleeping-mats, or for
children. Floor-mats are 5 to 8 yards in length, sail-mats 100 and more.
Sleeping-mats are of two kinds — a thicker to lie on, and a thinner for covering;
one of the most valued sorts has a pleat running through the middle of each strip
of plaiting. Borders are worked on with designs in darker bands ; white
feathers and scraps of European stuffs are woven in. One of the prettiest
productions of the art is the women's liku, a girdle woven from strips of the bast
of the wau-\x&& (a kind of hibiscus), with the fibres of a root that grows wild, and
244
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
blades of grass. Soft mats are made by plaiting the stalks of a fibrous plant in
one, and removing the woody portions by bending and beating. Bags ai
baskets are admirably woven ; fans, too, are made either of palm leav
strengthened at the edge and vandyked, or woven from bast. But superior to j
these are the string and the cables — the best from coco-fibre, the inferior kin(
from the bast of the wau-tree. In the Fiji Islands these are tastefully made t
into balls, ovals, spindles, etc. Comparison with New Caledonia shows how hig
East Melanesia stands in this art. One has only to look at a New Caledonia fa
beside one from Fiji. But in New Guinea, again, very elegant woven articles (
all kinds are produced.
Wood-carving again, of which we have seen specimens in the weapons, stanc
Wickeraork (basket, pouches, and fly-whisk), from Tongatabu. (Cook Collection,
Vienna Ethnographic Museum. )
highest in East Melanesia, though the west can also (as seen in the cut on p. 241]
show remarkable work. Individual districts are poor in this respect: in the
Banks Islands, for instance, hardly any carved human figures are to be seen. AH
the larger groups have their own subjects. The most wonderful fancy is showr
in the appendages to houses and boats. In these simple artists there is a strong
tendency to pass from imitation of Nature to conventionalised forms, so that this
imitation is never very successful, especially where, as in Fiji and the New
Hebrides, the human form is so rarely copied. One may see this in th£
representations of the human face, in which the nose appears as a line, falling
downwards and forwards from the projecting forehead, with strongly distended
LABOUR, DWELLINGS, AND FOOD IN OCEANIA
245
nostrils, and ending in the mouth, a cross line sharply cut back. In some New
Guinea masks this evokes a reminiscence of Ganesa and his proboscis. In Fiji
this fancy is fused with the far better proportioned geometrical designs of Tonga.
In San Christoval figures are better drawn than anywhere else, and in Isabel we
find really artistic engraved work. We may notice also one characteristic
production of Melanesian art : the ever-recurrihg grotesque heads of the New
Caledonians. The carved head with large nose and a kind of bishop's mitre on
the top, as shown on p. 252, is a type which we find in a larger form by itself, as
an idol. This religious sculpture shows a close affinity with idols from other
parts of the South Seas, in connection with which we may recall the resemblance
of the spear-heads to the knobstick of the Hervey Islanders as shown in the plate
of " Polynesian Clubs."
To the same branch of art we may refer the carved wooden masks. These
Polynesian fan and fly-whisks, insignia of chiefs, probably from Tongatabu. (Cook Collection. )
are often trimmed round the lips with red beans, and fitted with wigs of real
hair ; and are carried at dances, dressed in feather clothing. All these carvings
are executed with firm, strong cuts in palm wood. Lines in relief are
coloured black, the general level red, and depressed parts are white. From New
Ireland come examples of masks made by sawing off the face of a skull, just as
in Peru ; and with these are connected the ruddle-painted skulls of New Britain.
The flexible tortoiseshell was formerly the favourite material in south-eastern
New Guinea and in the Torres Islands for masks with wild arabesques and
appendages like trunks and combs. Still earlier, indeed, it was much more worked,
being used even for hats ; now they have got to use tin masks in New Guinea,
where formerly, in Kaiser Wilhelm's Land particularly, a vigorous style in masks
used to prevail, corresponding with that of the carved woodwork generally.
In trade the activity of the Melanesians is by no means insignificant, stimu-
246 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
lated and instructed as it no doubt is by the trading of the Malays in New Guinea,
and by that of the Tongans in Fiji. It was owing to this foreign trade that the
natives of Hood Bay came unarmed to meet MacFarlane's schooner, or that the
Papuas of Ansus have become honest brokers between the Malays and the
mountain tribes. This, too, it may be which has caused the Fijians to establish
and level market-places at suitable points of their coasts ; while the Fijian trading
people of Levuka, Mbotoni, and Malaki have formed themselves upon the example
of the Tongans. But even in Central Melanesia there is a lively traffic. Individual
islands of the New Hebrides manufacture various weapons ; thus the pointed
weapons of Tanna come from Immer. In the Solomons, Malayta builds canoes ;
Bougainville mints shell-money ; Guadalcanar makes rings and wooden dishes.
A valuable article of export from New Ireland are cuscus-teeth, perforated for
fillets and necklaces. All these peoples were acquainted with trade and barter
when first visited by Europeans ; among some of them iron was found, which
could have been introduced in no other manner. They rushed only too readily
into commerce with white men. When the Gazelle visited Blanche Bay in 1877,
canoes full of natives eager for trade swarmed around them ; but in 1889 Rear-
Admiral Strauch found the bay almost empty. The people had nothing left to
exchange. Money transactions play an important part, for rank and dignity are
graded upon money. In New Britain its purpose is served by disks of shell strung*
on fibre ; in the Banks Islands by the points of shells similarly strung ; in the
northern New Hebrides by long narrow mats which are more valuable in
proportion as they are older and more smoke-blackened. Sperm-whales' teeth,
which are valued as ornaments, represent large capitals in Fiji ; just as do, in the
Solomons, necklaces of dolphins' teeth, and armlets formed from rings of shell.
Santa Cruz treasures red parrots' feathers ; and Melanesia, in the Banks Islands,
the feathers round hens' eyes. Similarly, in former times, the red hair below the
ear of the flying-fox was used as money in the Loyalty Islands. Accumulated
capital is represented also by the masses of tapa, of which the Fijian chiefs are
so proud that on festive occasions they will wind 200 yards and more of it round
their persons. What is even more, Codrington tells us that the Banks Islanders
have organised a regular system of credit.
In Micronesia the position of currency is taken by stones, bits of glass or
porcelain, fragments of enamel, and beads. In the Pelew Islands, whence this
seems to radiate, seven sorts are distinguished. First, brack or barak, of which,
in Semper's time, the whole group did not contain more than three or four pieces.
The most valuable was made of terra-cotta, in the shape of a bent prism with
sides ground somewhat hollow, hard, fine-grained, and with almost a glassy lustre.
Kubary gives a picture of a brack worth forty-five shillings — a polished fourteen-
sided polyhedron. Second, pangungau or bungau, a red stone, polished like brack,
perhaps jasper. It was preserved in the treasure-chest of the King of Korror,
or buried on account of its value ; in Aibukit the wives of great men wear it on their
necks. Third, kalbukub or kalebukub, agate in a particular shape, or in some
specimens, hard enamel. Kubary says : " Only very few chiefs possess a single
kalebukub, and I was the first white man that ever had one." While these three
kinds of money go only among the chiefs, the four others, kaldoir, kluk, adelobber,
olelongl, circulate among the common people. For a bit of the last-named,
consisting of fragments of white or green glass, you can buy at most a handful
LABOUR, DWELLINGS, AND FOOD IN OCEANIA
247
of bananas, or a bundle of native cigarettes. In the kluk class are found polished
enamel beads, the production of a much higher ability than any with which we
can now credit the people. The different classes are not, however, very sharply
graded ; large kluks outweigh inferior kalebukubs. With the exception of the
most valuable, which are never brought out, all serve equally for ornament,
and so are perforated. Marks of rank are also a measure of property. Thus in
Pelew wealthy persons wear as an armlet the klilt, or atlas vertebra of the rare
Halicore dugong. The purchase of the klilt is a political requirement, with
which every new chief is expected to comply. Since only the king can confer
this. Semper calls it " the Order of the Bone." The same writer heard a pretty
story at Aibukit in Pelew : Once upon a time a boat floated up, the occupants
Wicker fans from the Gilbert or Marshall Islands {British Museum).
of which were the seven kinds of money. They had set out from their own
island, Ngarutt, to seek new countries. They had floated about in the ocean for
a long time without finding what they wanted, and at last they came ashore here
on Pelew. Off the harbour. Brack, who as the most important was lying stretched
out on the platform of the boat, told the next in rank, Pangungau, to go ashore
and have a look at the island. Pangungau, as lazy as his sovereign, gave the
order to Kalbukub ; he passed it on to Kaldoir ; he to Kluk, and so on till the
much-enduring Olelongl, who had no one to send, had to go. But as he did not
return, after a while Brack renewed his order. This time Adelobber went off
grumbling, and he, too, did not return. Then Kluk was .sent to fetch them both,
but he also stayed on the island ; and so it went on till Brack was deserted
both by his common people and by his nobles. " So he went to fetch them
himself, but he too liked the look of our town," said the narrator ; " and so all seven
stayed and took up their abode. Brack does nothing but eat, drink, and ^sleep,
and the higher in rank always sends his inferior on errands ; and thus it is," con-
cluded the narrator with a sly laugh, " that, just as with us men, the big money
sits quiet at home, and the smaller has to be smart and run about, and work for
himself and the swells too."
248
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
In the Carolines we meet with a similar development of currency. Here the
most frequent unit, called fe, consists of large pieces, like millstones, of a pale
yellow granular limestone, from i foot to 2 yards in diameter, and weighing up
to several tons. Their value depends upon their size, workmanship, and so on,
and from a few dollars to 1 000 or more. Every year many people go in gangs,
on board European vessels, to Pelew, where they find the raw material. Since
the working requires many hands, and the transport is expensive, these stone coins
usually remain the property of the whole commune ; very few find their way into
private hands. This kind of money being somewhat unwieldy, other forms of
coin come into use for commercial purposes : in the first place pearl-shells, or sar,
strung on a cord ; then rolls of matting, ambul, of coarse work and various value, the
largest from £7 to ;^i i. A further form of money, gau (clearly the same as the
Wooden bowl for food, from the Admiralty Islands— one-eighth real size. (Christy Collection.)
bungau of Pelew), is made from various polished stones and pieces of shells twisted
off, which can be strung into necklaces till wanted. These are found only among
the chiefs. Plaques of nutshells and seashells strung on long cords of coco-nut
fibre, black and white alternately — an arrangement of which, either in pieces of
the same size or tapering towards the ends, the art of Oceania is as- fond as were
the ancient Americans — form money and neck ornaments for the Gilbert Islanders;
polished beads of coco-nut shell, bracelets of tortoise-shell, spondylus armlets, are
currency in Mortlock. How necessary a currency is may be imagined when we
know that the Mortlock Islanders, though they weave themselves, import
particular kinds of woven goods from the Ruk Islands.
The importance of these new coinages is not only economical — their age and
their rarity gives an almost sacred character to some, while in the case of others
the difficulty of obtaining them, and the power which they impart, invest them
with political influence. Offences against chiefs can often only be expiated
by the sacrifice of a piece of money which represents the whole wealth of a
family ; and then the family, losing with it the credit based upon it, drops several
LABOUR, DWELLINGS, AND FOOD IN OCEANIA
249
steps in the social ladder. Thus money is, to put it briefly, next to religious
tradition, the basis of political influence and the standard of social position. The
coinage also plays an important part in the inter-tribal festivals. Every island
of the Pelew group gives from time to time a ruk, at which the representatives of
a certain number of allied islands bring to the government a fixed contribution
in native money. The visiting chiefs pay their host according to their rank.
Besides this mulbekel, there are other ruks, in which only the small places of a
district join with a view of showing friendship and good fellowship.
In general the economic life of the Melanesians gives the impression of a
moderate activity under favourable natural conditions. Melanesians from the
eastern parts, when serving on European plantations or on board ship, show an
I. Bamboo drinking horns from New Guinea— one-third real size. 2. Carved gourd, used for betel-box,
from the Trobriand Islands — one-third real size. (Christy Collection. )
amount of efficiency exceeding that of the Polynesians. In New Caledonia the
conditions are less gratifying, the indolence and poverty often reminding us of
Australians. Both sexes take part in labour. Of the mode of life in New
Guinea, D'Albertis has drawn a picture which would be well fitted by the motto
festina lente. The natives as a rule get up early, but sleep for several hours in the
course of the day. When their toilet is completed the men occupy themselves
during the cool morning hours in making twine for their nets. The women clean
the huts, fetch water, and cook the first meal, which is eaten in common : the
men trim the meat cleverly with their bamboo knives ; then most of them leave
the village and betake themselves to the field — the men armed with their spears,
the women with pouch-shaped nets and carved clubs to knock down dead wood
from the trees. They have four meals a day, consisting of bananas, yams, taro, sago,
and bread-fruit, kangaroo, and even meat and fishes. But they also eat snakes,
iguanas, frogs, the grubs of various insects, fresh-water tortoises, and lastly, with
250
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
n
#1
m
TT13
a
(6> '
Carved bamboo box from Western
New Guinea — three-fourths real
size. (Christy Collection. )
great gusto, a fresh-water mollusc called ebe, the shells
of which they use for the most various purposes, and
therefore always carry about with them.
Both Polynesians and Melanesians display an
artistic tendency in their simplest articles of daily use.
In reference to New Guinea, Hugo Zoller says : " You
will be guilty of no exaggeration if you speak of a
real art industry among the Papuas " ; both peoples
have attained a similar point, but the ornament of the
Melanesians is richer and fuller of fancy. It is
attractive to trace out how and in what their produc-
tions show the typical differences that have their
roots in the spirit of the people, or rather in the spirit
of the race. In Papuan ornament the predominant
element is the curved line, and that either in parallels
or freely interlacing. It runs especially into spirals,
but also into waves, crescents, ellipses ; individual
groups of ornament are separated by zig-zags and
straight lines. The concentric curve is always recur-
ring in the fantastic beaks of their ships, or in the
carved shields, paddles, and mallets ; it has a decided
advantage over any attempts at copying Nature. In
this New Zealand resembles New Guinea most ; now
and again efforts towards geometrical arrangement are
seen in paddles, the blades of which are divided by
two straight lines into four equal portions, variously
coloured. It appears still more in the wooden moulds
for the decoration of earthenware vessels. But it is
in the east of the island world that it may claim the
highest development, especially in the Tonga and
Samoa groups, which herein also show affinity.
The tools with which artistic work was done were,
before the introduction of iron, exceedingly simple.
The stone axe was the only implement for shaping
posts and planks, or for felling trees, and together
with sharp shells it served for the execution of the
larger ornament, figures, wooden dishes, etc. Carved
and engraved work was done with shells and rats'
teeth fixed in hard wood ; shells, again, and the
spines of sea-urchins or rays, served for boring, while
smoothing was done with files from the skin of a ray
and pieces of coral or pumice-stone. The shell-axe
was as a rule more frequent in the west, the stone
axe in the east ; but iron has created an equal
revolution everywhere. Skilled workmen as they
were, the islanders recognised at once the advantage of
iron tools ; but at first they preferred sheet iron in the
form of plain hoop iron to all other, since it could be
LABOUR, DWELLINGS, AND FOOD IN OCEANIA
251
Chisel and shell auger, from New Britain. (Berlin Museum.)
set and fixed just like their old stone axes. It was only in the environs of Geelvink
Bay, which were visited by the Malays from Ternate, and by Dutchmen, that the
smith's art found a footing in pre -European times; otherwise throughout the
length and breadth of the district, as far as Hawaii and Rapanui, iron and the
other metals had either never been known or had disappeared ; Schouten and
Tasman never mention them.
Owing to the larger number of land animals in Melanesia, increasing as it does
westward, hunting still plays an important part. In New Guinea many villages
subsist mainly upon it, and in
districts where certain birds of
paradise are found, the right
of hunting them is reserved
for the chiefs. Meanwhile, in
the Polynesians we have a
branch of mankind to whom
not only all the influences of
pastoral life, but also the
bracing effects of the chase,
have remained unknown. In
Hilo, indeed, ducks are cap-
tured by means of floating sticks, fitted with baits, and weighted with stones,
and small birds are caught in Tahiti ; otherwise there is no hunting of any
importance. Who can say whether the total impossibility of finding game to
provide an outlet for the desire to slay and torture, for ambition and active
impulses, has been as responsible for the incessant wars and the cruelty of man
towards man as the lack of larger animals' flesh has been an incentive to
cannibalism ? The decay of projectile weapons must in any case be connected
with this. Fishing, on the other hand, is all over the region pursued with energy
and diligence ; it takes a distinct place in the weekly division of labour. In New
Guinea the custom is to fish by detachments on fixed days, and to distribute the
catch equally among all members of the tribe. The appearance of a shark puts
whole villages into commotion ; in time of peace distinguished persons take the
command of fishing expeditions just as in time of war they lead troops. The
most perfect implements that the Polynesians generally possess are employed in
this work. The New Zealanders used to make nets 500 yards long, requiring
hundreds of hands to handle them. Hooks of every size are manufactured from
birds' bones, tortoiseshell, sea-shells, and hard wood, and fitted with artificial baits
made of feathers or bright pieces of shell. Those used in the capture of sharks,
a popular article of diet, are as much as 20 inches long. It is only in New
Caledonia and some parts of Western Melanesia that the fishing is limited to what
can be done with arrows, spears, and nets. In general the fish-hooks of the
Melanesian isles are excellent ; even white men prefer them to the European steel
hooks. Boat-builders, as we have mentioned, were sacred ; but the manufacturers
of ropes, fishing-lines, and fish-hooks were reckoned at least as important persons.
Property in these articles was so abundant that in the early times they were
frequently a medium of exchange against European goods. The strongest hooks
were composed of three pieces : the body consisting of a semicircular finger-shaped
piece of the bone of the cachalot or sperm-whale, the flat under side of which was
252
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
inlaid with mother-of-pearl. On its upper side the tortoiseshell hook was fastened
with string — the point in the larger specimens being pierced for a string to hold
the bait. When these tortoiseshell hooks became blunt or
broken they were able to do further service in necklaces. We
may mention here the simple but ingenious Tahitian arrange-
ment for carrying fish — a strong cord with a boar's tooth at each
end. For the shark-fishing, large lumps of bait are used ; for
the flying fish, an obtuse-angled, sharp-pointed piece of bone.
In New Britain they employ
s^
j;
also standing fish-traps made
of plaited work, and hand-nets
which are held from a moving
boat with the hilt - like end
dropped into the water. For
the same purpose the F'ijians
make a kind of floating bow-
net from the long stems of
climbing plants, plaited through
with coco - palm leaves. In
Trobriand a kind of rattle of
coco-nut shells half cut through
serves to entice the sharks.
Vegetable poisons, especially
one from a climbing glycine, are
used for stupefying the fish ;
sleepy fishes, such as sharks, are
said to be taken in Fiji with
nooses. A great number of
ceremonies and festivities are
connected with the turtle-fishery.
This is carried on by means of
weighted nets, which are thrown
into deep water close outside
the reef, in such a way as to
form a semicircular fence and
block the way of the turtles
returning from the land. The
animals are driven into these
nets by shouts, but the main
work is to get them on board.
For this purpose people are
required of conspicuous dex-
, „. . . ^ , , terity and strength to dive at
I. J?ishing float from the Solomon Islands— one-eiehth real size *.u„ •^- \ , i i •
(Christy Collection). 2. Floats, sinkers, baler, and war^pears *^^ ^'"t''^^' moment and driVC
from New Caledonia (Vienna Museum.) ' the animal tO the Surface j whcH
, , it is fairly on its back in the
boat, loud blasts of the shell trumpet announce the joyful intelligence. D'Albertis
saw skulls of turtles hung up in the temple of Tawan as offerings. In stormy
LABOUR, DWELLINGS, AND FOOD IN OCEANIA
253
weather the Hawaiians put out in their little fishing boats to catch dolphins,
and many a fisherman going too far in pursuit of the school — the position of
which is indicated by the birds in the air — has been cast away and lost.
In the matter of breeding animals, the first mention must be made of pigs.
Wherever these occur they take a prominent position. They are pampered :
in Tahiti and New Britain the little ones are suckled by women, and fed by old
women ; or, after the fashion of capons, literally stuffed with bread-fruit dough.
They are slaughtered at high festivals, and reserved exclusively for the upper
classes. Next to the pig, the dog is the only domestic animal of any size. The
A«ti%'4^f^
A New Zealand trawl-net. (Munich Ethnographical Museum. )
breed is a small one resembling the breed of the Negroes, with no bark. In New
Guinea, New Zealand, Samoa, and the Society Islands they were bred for meat,
being quite useless for hunting. The common fowl is the most widely distributed
of all : in Tonga they ran about wild in flocks ; while in Easter Island they were
the only domestic animal. None of the native birds have been regularly
domesticated, though in Easter Island the sea-swallows, sierna, were found so
far tamed as to sit on men's shoulders. In Tongatabu the islanders carried pigeons
or parrots on sticks, and on the south coast of New Guinea cockatoos were kept
in almost every village. But these have naturally no economic importance.
Agriculture is almost everywhere indigenous ; even on the most barren coral
island at least a few coco-palms are cultivated. It is most highly developed
on islands like Tonga, where soil and climate are not too favourable, but at the
same time not niggardly, so that labour is repaid but not allowed to flag. The
254
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Society Islands and Samoa, more prodigally endowed by Nature, stand some-
what lower, and the inhabitants are more indolent. Lowest of all are poor
islands like Easter Island or the smaller Paumotus, with little area and a scanty
rocky soil. Yet even
,si!n^-
Shark-trap with wooden float, from Fiji. ( Berlin Museum.
there plantains, sugar-
cane, sweet potatoes,
■;;;;■■ yams, taro, and sola-
i'l num, were found in
cultivation ; unpro-
ductiveness is the
exception, the more
favoured regions the
rule. Here we find
fenced fields, terraces with earth artificially banked up on steep slopes, and
arrangements for irrigation, especially in the cultivation of taro, trees for giving
shade, and garden flowers, even beds laid out ; all which is a sign that the
cultivation of the soil has advanced far. Even on Easter Island, G. Forster
Smoked fish from Massilia in East New Guinea — one-sixth real size. (BerUn Museum)
found an irrigation trench a foot deep around every plantain, while in Tonga he
walked in an avenue of four rows of coco-palms 2000 paces in length,
diligently weeded and manured. Cultivation is correspondingly dense; one
of the special advantages of Samoa to which Pritchard draws attention is that
you come every mile or two upon a grove of coco-palms or bread-fruit; and
the first visitors to Tongatabu depicted it as one great garden. In this
way their descriptions excited among their contemporaries the liveliest longing
for these fortunate islands. In Micronesia, where fishing prevails, agriculture for
the production of the chief article of food, taro, is carried on only in the larger
islands, such as the Pelews. The men cultivate betel, tobacco, and turmeric,
while the women of all classes, from the lowest to the highest, even kings'
wives, make it a point of honour to keep their ifaw- patches in the finest
condition. The task of the men is only to attend to the artificial irrigation of
the plantations, which are in low marshy places, and to set out the young plants ;
the women have to keep the ground weeded, and take the plants up as required.
Besides taro, the New Zealanders cultivate, among crops originally introduced
from the north, the sweet potato— this with religious ceremonies— and the bottle-
LABOUR, DWELLINGS, AND FOOD IN OCEANIA
255
gourd ; and of native plants a fern with edible rhizomes, and the New Zealand
flax {phormium tenax).
In western Melanesia agriculture is on the whole less advanced. Great part
of New Guinea is uncultivated. Yet even here in individual cases it stands high.
Cuttle-fish baits from the Society Islands, two-fifths real size. (Christy Collection, Berlin Museum. )
In the south-east among the Kerepunus, and on Astrolabe Bay in the north, the
fields are kept like gardens ; the soil being turned by men in a long row armed
with pointed sticks, and then levelled by the women and planted with bananas,
sugar-cane, yams, etc., in long strips. Clearing and fencing is done by all in
Polynesian pots and implements (the two calabashes for betel-lime, from the Admiralty Islands) ;
also a shell horn— one-fifth real size. (Christy Collection.)
common, in exemplary style. If the arable lands are far off, little huts are put
UP for temporary occupation. Among the western islands, New Britain and the
New Hebrides deserve the highest praise. There, as well as in the Solomons
the extensive plantations lie always in the neighbourhood of the habitations, and
frequently are arranged, for the sake of irrigation, on terraces one above another.
256
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
On the steep slopes of Meralava, in Aurora, and in other islands, field rises above
field, and every patch gets the full benefit of the irrigation. As in Newr Guinea,
so in Nevir Caledonia, the nutritious bread-fruit of the east is unknovs^n, which
implies a serious deficiency in the food-supply of the people. In little Mota
(Banks Islands), on the other hand, Codrington found sixty names for varieties
of bread-fruit, and eighty for yams. But the agriculture of the Fiji Islands takes
a higher rank than even that of Polynesia. Here more than anyw^here the taro
or dalo, unquestionably the most nutritious of all Melanesian food-plants, is the
staff of life. One kind is grown on dry ground, but the normal sort is the
Polynesian ; for which the soil is worked into a mortar-like consistency, and
Covered vessel in shape of a bird, inlaid with shell, from the Pelew Islands. (British Museum.)
deeply trenched, before receiving the young plants. After the yam, which
stands second, the next root-crop to be ' mentioned is the anai or masave, the
sweet root of the ii-iree. {Draccsna terminalis or cordyline ti). In a few districts
only, as Leper Island, is the banana the chief fruit ; though the Fijians have
thirty varieties of it. Sugar-cane, and the yakona plant, from the chewed roots
of which the intoxicating drink kava is prepared, are planted in great quantity.
We find, too, whole nurseries of the paper-mulberry, masi or malo, from the bark
of which the material called tapa is made. In the New Hebrides and Banks
Islands no single village is without its flowers and aromatic herbs. In all the
archipelagos of the equatorial Pacific, the coco-palm is one of the most important
plants. Even on uninhabited islands it is sedulously tended ; and it forms, with
the fruit of the pandanus, the chief food of the low islands, as the Paumotus,
which are poor in vegetables.
LABOUR, DWELLINGS, AND FOOD IN OCEANIA
257
On how insecure a basis, however, the life of these islanders rests is shown
by the only too frequent times of dearth. Among articles of diet the chief place
is taken by vegetable products and the spoils of fishing, and great groups of
these races are wholly vegetarian. Dietary laws forbid the eating of beasts or
plants which are atuas of the tribe. Where pigs and dogs exist, these delicacies
are reserved for the upper classes or for festive occasions. Contrary to our usual
ideas of the diet of these tribes, the fat and blood of the pig are among the
dainties served at the banquets of the chiefs. " No Greenlander was ever so sharp
set upon train-oil as our friends here," says Cook, of the Maoris ; " they greedily
swallowed the stinking droppings when we were boiling down the fat of dog-fish."
Rats are eaten as a rule only by the common people, in Tahiti only by women.
Most birds are reckoned sacred. Among vegetable articles of food the chief
is bread-fruit ; .then taro, yams, and sweet potatoes. Bread-fruit is sometimes
eaten fresh-baked, sometimes leavened ; Fiji being the only part of Melanesia
where the latter is usual. The taro is
washed to remove the acrid part, and the
flour that remains as a sediment is kneaded.
By letting the dough ferment the Poly-
nesians obtain poi, their favourite food,
resembling slightly sour porridge. It
will keep for a long time ; and baked yam
will keep : for a year. In Tahiti the
sweet potato is eaten only so long as
there is no ripe bread-fruit. We have
already mentioned the coco -nut, and its
great value as a food supply. In the
smaller Polynesian Islands the entire
stock of vegetable food . is provided by
coco and pandanus - palms, with taro.
Kababo, or pandanus -meal, dried and
roasted, forms, when pressed together,
a valuable preserve. Here we may men-
tion the famous earth-eating habit of the
people of New Guinea and New Caledonia.
Another vessel of the same material.
Museum. )
(British
The truth of it is that the former
eat great quantities of a greenish steatite, the latter of a clay containing iron
and magnesia, which is kept in dry cakes with a hole through them. They do
not do it for hunger, but for pleasure, and after copious meals.
In regard to the manner of preparing all these food-materials, it is a significant
fact that most of the Polynesians and many of the Melanesians possess no
earthenware vessels, and still less any of metal. They boil their water in wooden
vessels by dropping in red hot stones ; but they do not use this for cooking, only
to make shells open more easily. Cooking with hot stones was formerly more
frequent, but has become unusual ; coco-nut milk is boiled in the fresh shells over
the fire. The most common method is to lay the food between hot stones. It
indicates a certain progress when we find the stones, after heating, sprinkled
with water, the whole covered with leaves and earth and so left to itself. Since
the days of Cook and Forster many Europeans have extolled meat steamed in
Simple roasting or broiling at an open fire is
s
this way far above our roasts.
THE HISTORY UF MANKIND
pronounced a method of dressing fit only for persons in a hurry or for slaves,
-Cooking is the duty of the men in Pelew, of the women in the Mortlocks.*
European travellers in Hawfaii have been amazed to see a fowl tied up in a
bundle with a hot stone, to be produced cooked at the next halt. They eat in
the open air, sitting on the ground, which is strewn with fresh leaves ; hot food
being carried wrapped in banana leaves. The Polynesians use no salt, but
season their complicated fish and meat dishes with sea-water. The art of salting
pig-meat is said to be known in Hawaii. In many parts of Melanesia salt is
only known as a delicacy. To carve and distribute the meat is not held un-
worthy of the highest chiefs. Special formalities are observed in eating; yet
within the limits of these there is room for an unseemly degree of avidity. In
most places men and women must not eat together, nor either partake of what
the other has prepared. With almost equal anxiety they avoid eating out of
the same vessel with another. In ordinary times they take two meals in the
day ; but if a great quantity of food has been provided, they sit at it, with
occasional interruptions for dancing, play, and so on, till it is all devoured.
Among agricultural implements the chief place is taken by the primitive
stick, cut slanting at one end like a pen, and of about the length of a hay-fork.
The men who break up the ground with these are followed by boys carrying
sticks to break the loosened clods still smaller, and at last the earth is, if neces-
sary, rubbed fine with the hands, and piled up in little mounds, in which the
seeds or cuttings are placed. Among the Motus of New Guinea six or seven
men stand one behind another with a light pointed beam, which they run into
the ground, heaving up at the word of command a huge clod of earth. Weeds
and brushwood have in many places previously been removed by means of a
narrow paddle-shaped sharp-edged tool of hard wood, about 2 feet long. Some
weeks later the roots are grubbed up with a kind of hoe, which the workman
uses in a stooping attitude, almost level with the ground.
The only original stimulant used in the eastern islands is the kava or ava,
the fermented juice from the chewed roots of Piper methysticum. The first
Europeans considered that the use of it had increased rapidly. Even at that time
it was productive of great mischief, causing dimness of sight and weakness of
memory. Yet there are islands where temperance prevails, and even in Melanesia
it is partaken of in very varying amounts. Some drink it like coffee, others
carouse from gigantic bowls inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The mode of preparing
kava is as follows : a shallow bowl of hard wood resting on three short feet is
placed on the ground, girls and women lie in a circle round it, break off small
pieces of the dried kava root, put them in their mouths, and, when thoroughly
chewed, spit them into the bowl ; water is added, the drink is stirred, and the
beverage is ready. In Fiji it is said that this method of preparation comes from
Polynesia, and that formerly the pieces were cut. Coco-nut shells, or, as in
Tonga, four-cornered cups made of plantain leaf, serve as drinking-vessels, and
are drained with much enjoyment. The drink is a dark grey dirty-looking brew
of a by no means pleasant bitter taste. In the kava carouses of the Arii in
the Society Islands, all the excesses of intoxication were to be observed up to
the point of homicide and murder. The mode of calling together those who
were to chew and those who were to enjoy the drink ; the songs which accompany
the pressing out of the chewed root ; the prayers when the water was poured on ;
LABOUR, DWELLINGS, AND FOOD IN OCEANIA 259
and, finally, the song which celebrates the chiefs first draught, all point to an
idea of sanctity as connected with this indulgence. Thus in Vatd kava is drunk-
only in the worship of the spirits who dispense health ; in Tanna it is drunk as in
Polynesia, women being excluded, and a special place allotted to it. Kava drink-
ing becomes less as we go westward, and therefore is perhaps of Polynesian
origin. At any rate this kind of pepper was probably introduced into some
Melanesian Islands from the east. The people of New Guinea also drink kava
or kau, but the practice is not universal, and takes place only on festive occasions.
The drink is not unknown in Micronesia ; it is, however, obtained, not by
chewing, but by crushing the roots. The mass, after damping, is packed in strips
of hibiscus and wrung out. In Ponapd ava, which once was sacred, is now drunk
like water. In Melanesia also the preparation by crushing is found. Among
many Polynesian races kava afforded the basis for poisonous drinks ; a popular
poison among the Hawaiians was made by mixing with it the leaves of Tephrosia
piscatoria. Daphne indica, and the common gourd Lagenaria. That the consump-
tion of spirituous drinks was originally almost or quite unknown, is distinctly
asserted in regard to New Zealand, New Caledonia, the Loyalty Islands, Waigiu,
and Humboldt Bay. In a few places, as Guadalcanar and New Georgia, a kind
of palm wine is made, the juice being drawn off by incisions in the unopened
flower. We find the same in Micronesia, where the people of Ponap6 even
distilled a kind of brandy from palm wine. The plague of brandy imported
from Europe has, under the influence of the missions, happily been less diffused
in the smaller islands than in Australia and New Zealand.
Coco-nut juice serves as the ordinary drink, the nut is held high, and the
juice allowed to flow into the mouth, and the same mode of drinking is customary
from other vessels ; to touch the nut with the mouth is considered unmannerly.
As kava came in from the eastward, so did tobacco and betel from the west.
We can indicate New Guinea and its neighbourhood as the central point of both.
Both travel in close conjunction, tobacco having spread with extraordinary rapidity ;
for instance, in a few years it has overrun the Admiralty Islands and New Ireland.
Towards the end of the eighties the limit of tobacco passed exactly through
Normanby, now it is cultivated on all the larger groups of the Pacific Islands,
and in many places it already grows wild. In east and south-east New Guinea
it is smoked with a piece of bamboo, through the small opening of which the
smoke is drawn from the bowl and swallowed ; this intoxicating practice is known
as bau-bau. In the Woodlark, Trobriand, and Laughlan groups, the natives pro-
fess to have smoked through a reed before the arrival of the Europeans. This
was filled with the smoke from the leaves of a certain bush, and then passed
round the circle till it was emptied. This reed has been mistakenly regarded
as a weapon. The Papuas are great smokers, and A. B. Meyer mentions as a
peculiarity of theirs that, after puffing out the smoke through nose or mouth,
they form their mouths to a point, and draw in the air with a noise, so that he
could always hear when a Papua was smoking in his neighbourhood. Clay pipes
have long been manufactured at various spots among the islands, and the Maoris
understood how to carve them of stone in the same artistic fashion as is shown
in their most original utensils. Betel extends as far as Tikopia, further east if
has been diffused in quite recent times by means of labourers who have emigrated
•or been exported as far as Fiji, but is not yet found in the New Hebrides or
26o
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
^-Ms^
UsmA .
'0%
\
New Caledonian hut (Qu. sacred) after a model ; doorposts and roof-ornament
supplied from originals in the Berlin Museum.
the Banks and Torres Islands. Where it
cannot be got, as, for instance, in Isabel,
they use an aromatic bark. The western
Melanesians all chew betel. Wherever
it occurs the teeth are black, and the
traces of red saliva speak of the existence
of natives even in the desolate Finisterre
mountains. Betel nuts are given as pre-
sents to guests ; areca nut, pepper leaves,
and lime are used just as among the
Malays, and betel pepper is carried in
long ornamented gourds with a small
opening through which to introduce the
long narrow spoon. Betel boxes and
spoons are among the most sedulously
wrought utensils in New Guinea and its
neighbourhood. It is curious that the
words for these requisites in the Admiralty
Islands are very unlike the Malay names,
while those of the Yap Islanders who
belong to the west Micronesians, among
whom betel chewing is rare, remind us
of those used in the Admiralty Islands.
The houses of Oceania show Malay
affinities. They are four-cornered and
most frequently rectangular, long and low.
The long roof of palm-leaves,
rushes, or boughs, often resembles
an inverted boat or an elongated
bee -hive. The ridge is car-
ried by lofty poles, and
the eaves rest upon
shorter posts, the walls
consisting of reeds or
mats fixed between
them. In carefully built
houses the roof is formed
of rafters and sound
timbers, covered with
mats of banana - leaf..
The larger houses stand
on stone foundations in
the shape of raised plat-
forms. In Polynesia,
and the extreme east of
Melanesia, especially
Fiji, the houses fre-
quently stand on mounds.
LABOUR, DWELLINGS, AND FOOD IN OCEANIA
26r
of earth 3 to 6 feet high, the height being proportioned to the owner's claims
to importance. In Samoan huts, the roof, made of round bent timbers thatched
with sugar-cane or maize -leaves, rests upon a number of shorter posts, the
intervals between them being filled up with blinds of plaited palm -leaf. In
the Friendly Islands the plan departs curiously from the rectangular, the section
below the boat-shaped roof being
pentagonal ; and the same in
Easter Island. In Hawaii the
different character of the material
has led to a variation in style.
The boat -form is maintained for
the roof, and the frame -work is
the same ; but the roof itself, made
of thick layers of grass, is carried
down to the ground, creating real
grass huts. In the Melanesian
Islands this form is retained with
few exceptions. We find it in New
Guinea, where the huts are on posts
forming an oblong of 1 3 to 3 3 feet
by 13 to 22 feet ; and in the
Solomons, where the average length
of the family dwellings is 45 to
70 feet, with a breadth of nearly
40. Here the roof, projecting and
supported on posts, is thatched
with sago and coco-palm leaves,
and the side walls, about 3 feet
high, are woven in pretty patterns
of dark and light bamboo. Often
a veranda is built on to the narrow
side where the entrance is, and
gives a touch of elegance to the
whole edifice ; while the roof, made
of leaves laid close together, evinces
even more careful work. The
Fijian buildings also to some ex-
tent fall under this rectangular
Roof ornaments and shoring-props from New Caledonia.
(Vienna Museum.)
style. Besides those which are characterised by the long roof-tree we find a
second class, of which the ground-plan is a circle or an oval, and its external
mark the conical or even bee-hive roof. This is indigenous especially to New
Guinea, to some of the groups in the Torres Straits, to New Caledonia and the
Admiralty Islands ; also to Fiji and the Solomons. The whole thing often looks
just like a hay-rick. The temples differ from the huts only in size and internal
fittings. An advance towards embellishment is seen in the fashion of planting a
fiery-red dracaena near the huts. .
The Polynesian house shows no tendency to soar on high, but grows only in
length, even when it is already some hundreds of feet long. Thus, however elegant
262
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
the general appearance may be, nothing of architectural importance is arrived at ;
and the building, even though erected with care and amid special rites, is light and
not durable. Ruins of habitations are seen only where a stone foundation has
been laid. The Hawaiians were the last to give up their grass-huts — long after
they had adopted Christianity together with European clothes and utensils ; but
even seventy years ago their chiefs were having stone houses built. The per-
sistence of the Polynesian house in less elevated forms explains the value attached
to the roof When a Samoan village in time of war is fearing an attack, the
people take off their precious roofs and carry them to a place of safety. The
roof of a New Caledonian house is richly adorned with bunches of leaves and
shells. Under the peculiar conditions of the Maoris the Polynesian style under-
went the greatest variation among them. The ground-plan was the same, but the
house had firm wooden walls, with only a small door and narrow window in the
front, which faced east-
wards. The roof-tree was
carried over a porch, and
the roof thatched with
rushes or coarse grass.
This simple type can be
materially enriched by
carvings. These adorn in
the first , place . the main
pillar, which is in human
shape ; also the supporters
of the porch, the gable, and
often each individual piece
In the less genial districts they have winter., houses
Mats from Tongatabu. (Cook Collection, Vienna.
of wood inside and out
half underground. In winter a fire is lighted inside, and when the coals have
ceased to glow every opening is closed air-tight, till with an external- tempera-
ture of 15° or so the interior is up to 80° or 90°. This no doubt is one of the
causes of their disorders, for besides the exhalations of humanity there are also
tobacco -smoke and the odours of drying fish, the New Zealanders' "national
perfume." On the other hand, the neighbourhood of the huts is kept clean, and
in the palmy days of the Maoris a village would always give the impression of
tidiness and comfort.
Here and there in Polynesia stone buildings have been found which have
been taken to be habitations. The caves in heaps of stones which are among
the curiosities of Easter Island were perhaps places of refuge in case of war.
They exist also on other islands. In Isabel, villages defended by palisades for
the reception of fugitives have been laid out in the heights of mountains difficult
of access. They are called Teitaihi, and from the sea look like little forts. In
Hawaii the boundaries enclosing the villages were marked by walls a yard high.
Although as regards the form of the house it is immaterial in itself whether it
stands on the ground or on piles, on dry land or in the water, yet pile-building in
Melanesian dwellings has been carried to an extent found nowhere else ; and even
where it is not, as it often is, seen in its extreme development, it forms a charac-
teristic feature of life and scenery. Whether on dry ground or in the water, the
house is built on piles. Speaking of the village of Sowek on Geelvink Bay (of
LABOUR, DWELLINGS, AND FOOD IN OCEANIA
263
which we give a coloured illustration), where some thirty houses stand on piles, at-
tached by tree stems to each other, but not to the shore, Raffray says : " We have in
fact a perfect pile-village, just like those which science has reconstructed from the
prehistoric period." The yet neater huts in Humboldt Bay similarly rest on piles
a yard out of the water, but are connected by bridges. The roof rises to a height
of nearly 40 feet, and forms a steep six or eight-sided pyramid. The houses more
in the interior of New Guinea are likewise built on a similar plan ; and although on
dry land, stand upon lofty piles which, with their sloping stays, present a highly
original type of architecture as shown in the cut. They hang like eagles' nests,
House in the Arfak village of Memiwa, New Guinea. (After Raffray. )
some 50 feet in the air, on their thin swaying trestle-work, looking as if every
puff of wind must sweep them away. These airy dwellings are entered by means
of slanting tree-stems with steps nicked in them.
Constant hostilities have given rise to a special architecture in New Guinea
and the Solomon Islands. Huts, known as bako, adapted to hold some twelve
people, are attached to the branches of huge trees at a height of 80 to 100 feet.
The stem below is stripped of all unnecessary branches, and perfectly smooth.
Ladders made from liana or bamboo, which can be drawn up, serve to climb into
these tree-huts, in which stones and spears are stored. At the foot of each tree a
second hut is built, to live in during the day.
The size of the buildings is the expression of social conditions. Where one
family inhabits the house, as in Polynesia, they are small, becoming larger in
:64
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
proportion as the family groups adhere to the old custom of a common dwelling.
Large houses belonging to individuals are rare. In Fiji, where the houses are very
fine, the old customs had been much weakened by the prosperity of the aristocracy
of chiefs even before the English annexation. As regards size, and in other respects,
the architecture of the Solomon Islands comes nearest to that of Fiji, the New
Hebrides standing a stage lower. The chiefs' houses, the capacious assembly and
guest - houses, the boat-
houses, are carefully built
and adorned with carved
work, painting, and skulls ;
while large pots, orna-
mental bowls, plaited work,
and here and there fire-
arms form the most highly-
valued decorations. In
New Guinea the village
halls, called marea, are
specially notable. Even
in the pile-villages they are
found in a reduced form.
In New Hanover and New
Ireland they are buildings
of moderate size, 12 feet
by 25 or 30 feet ; so, too,
in New Britain, where the
roof of palm -leaves, pro-
jecting a little beyond the outer walls, has on either side a kind of turret, on the
top of which is a bundle of reeds. It is in Micronesia that the assembly or
club-houses are most conspicuous. In Yap, Pelew, and Mancape in the Gilberts,
two kinds of houses are
universally distinguished
— the family houses,
blais, and the great
houses or bats. The
building of the great
houses is a political
matter, and as such
entrusted to consecrated
artificers. They are
rectangular buildings,
standing alone : in the Carolines on a stone foundation ; in Pelew on a platform
of beams, upon which the polished floor immediately rests. Here the principle
of pile-building is employed on dry land. In contrast to the care with which
foundation, floor, and walls are treated, the high steep roof seems neglected,
no doubt because violent storms frequently take it off The common hall has
generally six similar openings the entire height of the wall, from a yard to a yard
and a half in width. These, like the doors and windows, can be closed with
light screens of reed or bamboo. Verandahs contribute to the comfortable
Stool from Dorey in New Guinea — one-seventh real size.
(Christy Collection. )
New Caledonian head-stools. (Vienna Museum. )
LABOUR, DWELLINGS, AND FOOD IN OCEANIA
265
character of the houses. In the case of the club-houses of New Guinea they are
often covered with hangings of leaf fibre. The low door has often a porch of
its own.
In the interior of the Polynesian huts apartments are arranged by means of
woven work and matting stretched from wall to wall ; in the smaller houses at
least a sleeping place is divided off. The carving on timbers and pillars, the
reed panelling or mat
tapestry on the walls,
the cords of various
colours with which '
the rafters are bound,
hanging down from
the roof, lend a cheer-
ful and pleasant char-
acter to the interior of
the better houses. The floor is carpeted with mats ; near the central pillar is a
hollow where the domestic fire burns. This central pillar is the place of honour
where the master of the house and his head wives sleep, and where weapons
Carved and painted rafters from common ^alls [bais] in Ruk.
(Godeffroy Collection, Leipzig. )
I Goiu-d bottle from the D'Entrecasteaux Islands— one-third real size ;
Yap— one-fourth real size. (Finsch Collection, Berlm.
Head-stool from
and utensils hang in tasteful arrangement. Less comfortable is the fitting up of
Melanesian houses, in particular of the pile- buildings, the floor of which is
formed by cross timbers hardly as thick as the arm and often half a yard apart,
rendering a certain amount of dexterity necessary to step over the gaps In
the actual living rooms on either side of the corridor, bamboo rods more closely
laid form the floor. There are no windows, since it is thought that ghosts
266 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
do not come in through the doors but through openings in the roof. Boards
covered with a mat form the bed, the hearth is of basket-work with a thick layer
of earth on it ; long thick pieces of bamboo with the joints perforated for holding
water, sacks of matting, javelins, bows, arrows, spears, have their appointed places.
In Tahiti there used to be regular stands for utensils, also shelves, and a long
boat-shaped framework on which the dishes were placed at meals. In Samoan
huts at the present day a chest stands on the floor in which clothes and small
objects are kept. Chiefs even had a chest of drawers, and similar articles of
furniture have been introduced elsewhere in the course of Europeanising. Among
the house furniture of the Tongans, the headstool of hard lancewood is never
absent ; the Samoans use as a support for their heads a piece of bamboo half a
yard long, as thick as the arm, and with short legs. In Yap, the Marshall and
Solomon Islands, and no doubt elsewhere, a billet serves. In Fiji, as in Tonga,
Samoa, and Tahiti, this has become a regular stool. In Yap these stools have
faces carved at either end. Seats are of European introduction, and have estab-
lished themselves only in the huts of the chiefs. Even in the Christian churches
men and women sit upon large mats with their legs doubled under them. The
artistic tendency shows itself also in house architecture by the picturesque forms
given to the gables, often as much as 40 feet high, of the roofs, which reach far
down, often saddle-shaped and woven with carefully-worked thatch. The reed
walls, often entirely concealed on the outside by the roof, display on the inside
pretty patterns. Where there are three layers of reeds the inner one lies
horizontally, and the crossings of the others are utilised to produce these patterns.
A master of difficult patterns is a man in great demand. Much trouble is
expended in Micronesia in the adornment of the club-houses : the exterior is
painted and inlaid with shells ; in the interior red ochre is used on the walls, and
the floor is varnished with vegetable lacquer. The principal decoration consists in
winding the reeds with string ; also in the carving of the timbers and walls with
hieroglyphics of mythical signification.
The relation between houses and ships exercises a remarkable influence upon
the nature of the carved and painted ornaments, perhaps upon the whole style.
The walls of the house are made by preference from the planks of old vessels, and
bowed outwards. The roof is shaped like a ship, and the whole house is like a
boat turned over and placed on props. Images of ancestors on the gable or at
the side of a house call to mind how the whole house «was consecrated from the
foundation upwards. Small monuments in the neighbourhood take the form of
miniature houses. If one considers that a large house is fastened together only by
cords ; that the boards, some 6 inches wide, and the massive beams were hewn with
shell axes and finely smoothed ; that the planks of the floor are even polished ;
that the holes were made with sharks' teeth gimlets, we may get an idea of the
amount of labour expended upon such a building. These works are eloquent
witnesses of the height which craftsmanship, art, and comfort have attained where
the age of stone still prevails.
A small number of houses — some twenty or thirty — form a village at a
favourable spot on the shore, by preference at the mouth of a river, where fresh
and salt water are at hand. Villages are rare further in the interior, and then
only on heights ; on the shore they are apt to be hidden behind a belt of forest.
The mode of life points, indeed, to the sea ; in former times it may have been
THE FAMILY AND THE STATE IN OCEANIA 267
otherwise. Everywhere in the hills we find traces of deserted villages, but the
present inhabitants know nothing about them. Perhaps the assemblages were
once larger; now a village of more than 500 inhabitants is a rare exception.
Life in these villages is very varied, often idyllic ; each dwelling stands separate,
surrounded by gardens and fields, or under the shade of lofty trees. Paved roads
are frequent : in Yap they are a yard or two wide and paved with slabs of stone,
broadening out in the neighbourhood of the club-houses into a paved place of
assembly. Here, and by every old house, flat stones are sunk into the ground as
seats. It is in Fiji especially that we hear of well-laid roads and other public
works. There a canal called Kelimoosu has been cut through the delta from Bau
to the river Wainiki in order to shorten the passage for strategic purposes. New
Caledonia shows remains of ancient aqueducts, and in Espiritu Santo the village
streets are to this day laid with flints and provided with conduits. A light breath
of historic life sweeps with a gentle melancholy round these villages, and round
the solitude of the superfluous fortific'ations on the hills and the stone pyramids
which stand man-high in the stone circles of the Nangas.
§ 8. THE FAMILY AND THE STATE IN OCEANIA
The family — Birth — Dedication — Education — Courtship and weddings — Position of women — Marriage —
Mother-right — Tribal organisation — The state — Classes and ranks — Aristocratic type of public life — The
prince and the nobles — Limitations of sovereign power — Court ceremonial — Warlike character — Casus belli
— Military organisation — Modes of fighting — Sieges — Sea-fights — Treaties — The Malo — Respect for law —
Laws of taboo — Punishment of those who violate taboo — Removal of taboo.
Among the Polynesian races, the birth of a child is accompanied by an invocation
of the gods on the part of the husband or father ; while the woman's mother, or
one of her near relations, performs the duties of midwife. First, the family deity
is called to aid ; but if labour is protracted, the husband's or mother's own
private god. Dedicatory rites have already taken place during pregnancy. At
the moment of parturition the names of all the gods are recited in succession, and
the one whose name is uttered as the child comes into the world is regarded as
his tutelary deity. Similarly the Tohungas of New Zealand, after aspersion,
watch the movements of the child, and select as its secret name that word of their
invocation which coincides with them. After the birth, the chief ceremony is
the cutting of the cord. This is performed in Samoa, in the case of boys, upon
a club, to make them brave ; while for girls, one of the boards is used upon which
the tapa is beaten, that she may be an industrious housewife. In Fiji the cord
is solemnly buried. As in New Zealand, where children are purified and named
eight days after birth, with invocation of the tutelary god, and sprinkling with
water, the Morioris of Chatham Island give the name amid hymns from the priests,
water being poured on at the same time ; and they further plant a maheu-tree, in
order that the child may grow like it and flourish. Among the Melanesians,
simpler customs prevail. A hut is built for the lying-in woman, and some female
relation suckles the infant. Continence and purification are enjoined upon the
husband also. In Fiji and the New Hebrides neither of the couple eats flesh-meat
or fish after the birth, for fear of making the baby ill ; nor must the father, for
268
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
a month after the birth of his first child, do any hard work. The couvade occurs
distinctly in San Christoval, where " father-right " is the custom. Infanticide is
widespread, and abortion is extensively practised, often merely on account of pique,
Chief's wife of Papua, Samoa. (From a photograph in the Godeffroy Album.)
but often also from vanity — the woman not caring to have children until the third
year of her marriage. In some parts of the Solomons and the New Hebrides
all children even are killed at birth, and substitutes purchased. If the child is a girl,
it has generally more prospect of being kept alive where inheritance goes in the
female line, and where it will carry on the family succession. The birth of twins
THE FAMILY AND THE STATE IN OCEANIA
269
is not regarded as actually injurious, though there is a disposition to look upon
them as uncanny. If the children are once allowed to live, everything is done for
them with due care. Not only the parents but the relations make them presents.
Little children who are living after their parents' death are adopted by others ;
if they are older, natural ties, as well as the laws of inheritance, are honestly
observed in the traditional way.
The most important epochs in life have their own religious consecration.
Tongan ladies. (From the Godeffroy Album. )
God is closer to man than is always the case with us Christians. In Saa, and on
the Leper's Island, toy bows are offered, a week or ten days after birth, on behalf
of the boy, that he may be strong ; mat-fibres for the girl, that she may be
industrious. The participation in this of relations on the father's side is a
significant infraction of mother-right, which in other respects is jealously guarded.
In Hawaii, the child at weaning is brought from the mother-house, Noa, to the
father-house, Mua, and thereby falls under the taboo to be presently mentioned.
2 70 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Thereupon the mother sacrifices a pig to her family god, while the father offers
ava and implores health for the new scion. At the entrance upon manhood their
consecration is repeated in more severe forms, and attended by customs of a
hardening nature. A general fast is held in the family. The grandfather,
between whose soul and that of the next generation but one a closer affinity is
deemed to exist, rouses the iirst-born grandson from his sleep, and initiates him, in
a hut set apart for the purpose, into the mysteries handed down from past times ;
or the Tohungas of the tribe teach the rudiments of the traditions to such as show
themselves of capacity, especially to the sons of Ariki or chiefs, dwelling meantime
in the forest, in a house of leaves. The fasts are terminated by eating the pith of
the toia-toia, in order " to cork up the secrets " ; followed by a second aspersion.
After this the youth is fit for marriage. Yet another consecration takes place
later, when the youth, now ripe for his first campaign, stands naked by the river-
side, and is sprinkled with water by the priests, calling upon Tu. Women and
boys are not admitted.
In education the influence of the family is less than that of the village
community or the tribe, as we may see if we consider the frightful extension of
infanticide in pre-Christian times, at the bidding of these authorities. It was
favoured by the ease with which marriages could be dissolved, and the exagger-
ated view taken of the devolution of the father's position upon the son. Immedi-
ately after birth the first-born boy is invested with his father's name and dignity
and henceforth takes precedence of him. While the boy is in his minority, this
produces no practical results, the father exercising all authority in his son's name.
But the child must sometimes be felt to be a burden ; for which reason those
freest of free people, \!as.Ariis or Ehris of Tahiti, recognise no children. Connec-
tions cutting into and cutting up families contribute still more to cause estrange-
ment between parents and children — adoption especially. In the Gilbert Islands
the parents select the adoptive father or mother, who, when these are people of
means, intrude themselves even before the child is born. It is the adoptive
father who arranges the marriage of his fictitious offspring, and in whose house
the young couple live. In this way complete transpositions take place within
the family. It must, however, be said that in communities of lax morality
adoption makes the descent of children more secure than the recognition of the
true children, born under corrupt conjugal relations, can do. The inequality of
the sexes has a profound effect upon family life and the increase of the race.
The reasons that have been assigned for the smaller number of women are the
murder of female infants, and the greater mortality of the adult women by reason
of too early child-bearing, overwork, and privation, the violence of the men, and
licentiousness. The proportion is often quite abnormal : in Hawaii it reaches
one woman to four or five men.
In Melanesia circumcision usually takes place on the appearance of the
beard. On attaining puberty, or sooner, the youth leaves the parental hut and
avoids his mother and sisters, sleeping in the common hall, which, except at
marriage festivities, no woman may enter. The ceremonies at the initiation
of the nubile girls are simple, in Samoa no more than a feast with presents. The
whole course of life is different where girls are betrothed from their birth, and
are brought up from childhood in the house of their intended. In Isabel it is
even the custom for a girl to live in the bridegroom's family till she is full-grown.
THE FAMILY AND THE STATE IN OCEANIA
271
In Fiji, when that time has arrived, the bridegroom comes to the house of the
parents, offers some whales' teeth as a present, and takes the long-engaged bride
to be his wife. Here, as in the Banks Islands, any anticipation of his marital
rights is jealously guarded against. If the girl goes wrong she is severely
punished, even put to death ; and her seducer, if he is caught, shares the same
fate. A custom hard to explain is found in the Solomon Islands, in New Britain,
and New Ireland — that girls on reaching puberty are locked up for some months
in little huts of their own, entrance
being allowed only to old women.
The ceremonies of courtship
are conducted on the familiar lines.
The courting is done on the young
man's behalf by relations or friends,
who bring the symbolic presents
to the house of the girl. These
are in Samoa food, in New Britain
heavy strings of money, carried on
spears. The acceptance of these
signifies a favourable disposition ;
but as this form of courtship is
addressed not to the family but
to the tribe, the final decision
rests with the tribal chief. At
the wedding an exchange of gifts
takes place, the settlement of
which often gives rise to some
hard bargaining. The bridegroom
gives a boat, weapons, pigs ; the
bride mats and bark-cloth. In
Samoa both tribes used to assemble
for the wedding festivities in the
public place of the village. The
bride, followed by her friends and
playmates, well oiled, carrying
flowers and dressed in their best , ,u v, •A^^.r.r.rr.
mats, walked along a mat-strewn path to the middle, where sat A^ b„d^g-°-
awaiting her. She took her place facing him, on a snow-white mat while the young
women brought the wedding presents, singing as they went. In the days when the
lefs still took a pride in the virtue of their daughters, inquiry mto this followed ;
and great was the applause which greeted chief and tribe ^f "o ^^am cou d be shown
on her character. The bridegroom's friends then escorted the bride to her future
home where she passed some days in seclusion. This ^^^\f^-^-^'y J'^^l'^^^Z
have ^een only provisional, and the next five or six months a period of P-ba^K,"
since at the end of that period a second festive gathering was held, and the jnarnage
s aed by a renewed exchange of presents. In Melanesia too this exchgeb^
thinly concealed thepurchase of wives. The price -1-"-^.'^^ f f ^^f^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^
by the son ; and in the Solomons a widow is at the absolute disposal of her deceased
husband's relatives, in the event of her marriage-pnce not bemg refunded. The
Old Tongan woman. (From the Godeffroy Album. )
272
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
necessity of refunding this is often the only ground of abstention from hasty
divorces. Among the better-to-do classes of the more advanced stocks, like the
Fiiians, cases occur, though exceptionally, of marriage of inclination The acquisi-
tion of wives by capture still occurs, and the capture can be made good by the
payment of an indemnity to the relations, in case the woman is content with her
husband Fights of a "pretence" kind, however, take place between the brides
and the bridegroom's friends, even where there is no trace of compulsion ; and
a slight resistance on the bride s
part is regarded as good manners.
In various parts of West
Melanesia marriage is celebrated
with ceremonies of a religious
character. Thus at Dorey, on
Geelvink Bay, the couple join
hands sitting before an ancestral
image, and eat sago together
under the exhortations and con-
gratulations of their friends ; she
offers him tobacco, he presents
her with betel. During the first
night the newly -married pair
must sit up together while the
relations partake of a copious
and solemn meal ; after which
the young husband takes his
wife home. In New Britain the
couple are sprinkled with coco-
nut milk, the nut being broken
above their heads. The wedding
revel with music and dancing is
seldom forgotten.
A man frequently takes two
wives, or more, if his establish-
ment allows. Among poor tribes
like the Motus, on the other
hand, monogamy is universal ;
but divorce is so easy that a
kind of " successive polygamy "
arises. When the wife is dgne
with she is laid aside or bartered away. In the Gilberts a man can deiriand the
sisters of his wife in marriage, and is expected to marry his brother's widows. The
overplus of women among the Naiabeis of New Guinea decides the point, no less
than does in other cases the more usual overplus of men. Peculiar family or-
ganisations not uncommonly show traces of polyandry. In the New Hebrides, for
example, there is a kind of convention in cases of widowhood, that two widowers
shall live with one widow ; the children belonging to both. Dearth of women has
lately given rise to something similar in the villages of labourers in Fiji, reminding
us of the limitations of permitted marriages caused by the veve or veita system to
Princess Ruth of Hawaii. (From a photograph belonging to
Professor Buchner, Munich. )•
THE FAMILY AND THE STATE IN OCEANIA
273
be mentioned presently. In New Ireland and New Britain widows are claimed as
common property by all the men. But the re-marriage of the widower is opposed
by all the female relations of the deceased wife : at first sportively, by using every
possible form of annoyance to make the man keep at a distance, and then in
earnest, if he does marry again, by destroying his house, goods, and crops.
Generally speaking, in the simpler conditions of Melanesia, morality stands
in many respects higher than in Micronesia. Finsch says of New Britain : " The
exemplary modesty and respectable demeanour of women and girls strikes the
traveller coming from
Micronesia in a specially
pleasing way ; and seems
hardly compatible with
the universal nudity." In
some islands, as Florida,
the chief maintains public
women, whose earnings
go to him ; but elsewhere
nothing of the kind is
known. Adultery is in
many islands punished
with death, or (in more
recent times) with a fine.
Jealousy is a great cause
of contention, both public
and private. But at cer-
tain seasons an ancient
custom relaxes every tie.
At the Nanga festival in
Fiji the women are the
willing prizes of whoever
can catch them in a race ;
and at the same time all
taboos of articles of food
are taken off.
So far as it turns upon
the distribution of labour,
the position of the women,
especially in the Polynesian region, is higher than among many other races.
Where labour itself is more highly valued its distribution between the sexes is
fairer. In Tonga almost all work, even that of cooking, fell to the men ; the
women only preparing tapa by way of entertainment among a circle of neigh-
bours, accompanied by the men beating time. In Hawaii it was the same
Both work together in the fields, but fishing is the men's aff^air ; though
women take part in diving for shells. Among the more needy tribes more is laid
upon the woman, and with nomads she is the beast of burden. In New
Zealand the women held formerly a higher position. They were not excluded
from the discussion of public affairs, not even from councils of war ; they even
went with the men to battle.
T
Women of Ponap6 in the Carolines. (From the Godeffroy Album. )
Husband and wife ate together, and the mother
274 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
got as much obedience from her children as the father. Only in certain tribes
destitution produced exceptions. Nothing in all this is altered where " mother-
right " is valid ; for though the children follow the mother, the father is still the
head of the family, and his wedded wife does not belong to " his side of the house,"
but remains " at the door." As in affairs of daily life, so even in higher matters
two views of the woman's position are in dispute ; and here too we find that the
higher view is taken in some Polynesian groups. But even in the Melanesian
Islands we meet with both not far apart. In the northern New Hebrides women
seem freer than in the southern, and in some parts of New Guinea her position
in the family is described as one of high esteem. But in Polynesia the notion
that contact with her is defiling, excludes her from closer association with men
at meals, at public worship, and at festivals. In Tahiti men and women have
their separate priests ; in other islands the women have none, and even a life in the
next world is not allowed to them on the part of the men. In Melanesia the
women may not enter the common houses of the men, nor the boat-houses, which
are of the nature of temples. Yet again the Maoris ascribed prophetic gifts to
the oldest woman of the tribe, while in Tonga there were priestesses who, after
drinking ava, were possessed and prophesied. In Micronesia their social position
has unmistakably risen. Here it is quite contrary to good manners for a hus-
band to beat his wife or use insulting words to her in public. In Pelew, if the
woman insulted belongs to the Ajdit stock, the fine imposed is equal to that for
homicide, and if it cannot be paid the culprit must fly the country. The greatest ,
insult that can be offered to a married man is any ill word of his wife ; and no
one must mention the name of another man's wife in public. A social organisa-
tion exists here for women corresponding to that of the men, and running almost
parallel with it. Just as the chief of the men in Pelew must belong to the family
whose seat is Ajdit, so the eldest woman of this family is the queen of the women.
Beside her stand a number of female chiefs, with whom she keeps an eye upon the
good behaviour of the women, holds her tribunal, and gives judgment without any
man being allowed to interfere. So too the women are divided into leagues, called
Klobbergoll. If these lack the important attribute of the male unions, — community
of labour, participation in the wars, common dwelling in the bais, — they have the
right to levy taxes at festivals and on the death of the military king. Among
their duties are the management of the decorations at festivals, including the
dances, of which the men openly admit that only the women understand the
meaning. The men are strictly warned • off the women's bathing-places ; exactly
for which reason these spots are selected for lovers' rendezvous. In this case the
man is under the protection of the lady and her friends. A great auxiliary to
these tendencies, which prevail in so many districts, towards giving a higher
position to women, nay, even to the widespread " mother-right," is that loosening
of the marriage-tie which has progressed to the point of decomposing society.
No tie in the whole life of the Polynesians appears to be weaker than that
of marriage. Small reasons are enough to undo it, and its undoing is taken
very easily on both sides. This goes so far as to make the wife's position one of
simple thraldom, where she is regarded as the man's property and no more. When
Europeans in Polynesia wish to secure the favour of native women they have first
to make a present to the husbands, who will hand over their wives, compulsorily
if need be. In Hawaii a kind of incipient polyandry arises by the addition to the
THE FAMILY AND THE STATE IN OCEANIA 277
establishment of a " cicisbeo," known as Punali'ia. Thus in Tahiti women of easy-
virtue could call themselves Tedna, which was also the name of ladies of the royal
family. Very often the main object of matrimony appears to be not at all the
procreation of children, but the husband's comfort ; or, at best, the guardianship
of the wife, or some question of money. Besides this, not only the constraint of
exogamy, but — at all events in the higher classes — political objects have to be
considered. One thing detrimental to marriage is the view that it is not seemly
to display the wife to the world as being in confidential relations with her husband.
Men never allow themselves to be seen on the highway with their lawful wives,
though with a paramour they have no objection. If a stranger stays in the house
the wife keeps out of the way. Even the number of children, which is kept as low
as possible, is affected by this corrupting influence. It arises in great part from the
tribal organisation with its union of men, involving necessarily the exclusion of
the family ; and even if the family exists beside it, it becomes corroded at the
base. The more the system of men's clubs develops, the weaker are family ties.
If a girl at ten or twelve years old has not found a husband, she goes as an
armengol, or doxy, to a bai, and becomes the paramour of a man who keeps her.
Until she can find some one to marry her — a matter of simple agreement — she
can go from one bai to another. Often the opposed interests of the wives and
the irregular partners lead to quarrels ; and for this reason the paramour has a
hut of her own built for her in the neighbourhood. Nothing, however, shows
more clearly the way in which the superior force of social organisation breaks
through the barriers of Nature than the fact that the married women do not
object to maintain the girls of the bat, — another proof of the subordination of
family to tribal interests which the mode of courtship has already exemplified.
External life, too, is not family but village or tribe life. The Polynesians are
sociable, but it is pre-eminently a masculine society ; and domestic happiness is
not unaffected by this. In this matter the Negroes are much better.
Owing to the twofold organisation of exogamic society in hapus or veves a whole
list of restrictions, prohibitions, menaces, ramifies through families, and produces a
deep influence on the life of these races. The tie by which all men and all women
of two different " sides " are connected, is closer than the marriage-tie. Breaches of
it are rarely committed and then severely punished. Alliances between people
who are '' of us " are as bad as incest. The stern law extends even to newly-born
children, and twins of opposite sexes fall victims to it. The relation to the
parents-in-law has peculiar limitations. The man never utters the name of his
father-in-law, and avoids taking down objects that may happen to hang above his
head or stepping over his legs. The mother-in-law is avoided as much as possible,
and herself avoids looking at her son-in-law ; intercourse is only permitted at a
distance and with mutually averted faces. If they meet casually, they keep out of
each other's way. Mother and son-in-law, and often brother and sister, are careful
not to tread in each other's footsteps. If one has walked on the shore, the other
does not go there till the tide has obliterated the prints. Towards a brother-in-law
the relation is as in the case of a father-in-law ; neither his name nor that of son-
or daughter-in-law is ever uttered, but mutual intercourse is not forbidden. In
Leper Island and in Fiji brother and sister may not talk to each other. What
wonder if the domestic life of a Melanesian family is governed by mistrust, jealousy,
and aversion ? Other things, too, tend to sap family life. Women during preg-
278
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
nancy remain separate from their husbands ; infanticide, polygamy, adoption,
have a ruinous effect. The popular philosophy of P""iji says that it is usual
for a wife to hate her husband, rarer for a husband to hate his wife, rarest
of all for a woman to hate the man by whom she has had a child before
marriage. Superficial friendliness is common, but few are conscious of any
deeper feeling. There is only one natural feeling which lives here as else-
where, and often enough breaks down all barriers, and that is maternal love.
Even this is flawed very soon in Fiji by the bad bringing-up of the boys ; the
father teaches them to beat their mother, and not be cowards enough to do what
a woman tells them.
The practice of shutting off a tribal group by the exclusion or subordination
of marriages out of the tribe has no doubt political importance, but has never had
a favourable effect on the family. Where the
societies connected through the mother are able to
keep themselves clearly distinct, they are based on
a cleavage in the tribe, as in the case of exogamy.
Typical cases are the Maori Iiapu-sysY^ra., and the
East Melanesian veve. Hapu signifies the womb,
in the sense of that which bears the family within
it. Every Iiapu has its tutelary god, who is figured
as a bundle of reeds ; it cultivates the land in common,
intermarries, and inherits by " mother- right." The
oldest member represents its rights, especially in
the event of a partition or division of land. Not-
withstanding that the hapu is subdivided into wtianau
or families, all the members claim relationship with
their chief, and bear a common name, which they
profess to derive from the most remote ancestor.
Owing to intermarriage within the hapus, together
with " mother -right," the /««/«(! -organisation does
not run parallel with the village -divisions ; as a
rule, several hapus are found co- existing in one
village or pah^ while the same hapu will be distri-
Fly-whisk, from the Society Islands — one- , , . .,, a i t • •
sixth real size. (Christy Collection.) buted among various Villages. Another division,
iwi, exists among the Maoris, embracing all who
came over in the same boat. The name signifies " bone," and thus a deeper
foundation, similar to that of the hapu is not excluded. In Melanesia the
term " one side of the house " signifies the same thing as hapu, or the two
veve (mothers) into which the whole tribe is divided. In Fiji it is veita " root."
The children always belong to the mother's family ; the husband's nearest
relations, by whom his own family is carried on, are his sister's children. A
man must always marry a wife from the other group. The two families
again branch off into four, and these again into several subdivisions. All
who bear a common name regard themselves as blood-relations, and marriages
between them are incestuous. This tie is often the only one that holds, and
thus it acquires political importance. Here, as everywhere, the exogamic groups
possess cognisances, or, as we might say, family arms ; most often animals or
plants, to which they believe themselves to be in some way related. Among the
THE FAMILY AND THE STATE IN OCEANIA
279
Melanesians this symbol is called tamanin or ponto, " resemblance " ; among the
Polynesians atua. They wear it both in their tattooing and in the ornamentation
of their weapons. Inanimate objects also, paddles, nets, whisks, are among these
signs, said to have been granted by the gods ; and their protective power is
honoured by solemn dances. Prohibitions in respect of what may be hunted
or eaten are connected with them. That similar relations may at any time
come into existence is shown by
the sudden cessation of all banana-
planting in Ulawu, after an influ-
ential man had announced on his
death -bed that he was going to
turn into a banana.
The sacrifice of the family, as
if it were a transitory appearance
on the surface of the unchangeable
tribe, comes most clearly to view
in the regulations as to property
and inheritance. The husband can
take nothing of his wife's property,
while when he dies she only keeps
what he has given to her. The
brother of the deceased is the rightful
heir, while in marrying she loses
nothing but her name. The right
of the female line is valid in the
succession ; but the right of the
male line has already tried here
and there to acquire validity, or
has even achieved it to a large
extent. Property and rank are
conferred by the mother ; the king's
successors are the male offspring of
his sister. Thus in Tonga, in the
chiefs' families a high rank was
assigned to the elder sister or
aunt, in the reigning family indeed
higher than that taken by the
Tuitonga. In Fiji the brothers
first succeeded, and failing these,
the sons. No married princess
could attain to this rank. Thus, in Pelew the king's wife is never the women's
queen, for it is forbidden to marry in the same family ; but the women's titles
are like those of the men attached to seniority. Thus, in order to avoid any
interlacing of the two spheres of sovereignty, the chief may not marry any chief's
daughter.
The children inherit their mother's home, which often leads to chaotic com-
plications. Relationships by the female side, on which the pedigrees rest, fuses
with the (2/'«^«-system ; the alleged sons of the same mother may not injure each
Fly-whisks (chiefs insignia), from the Society Islands-
one-fifth real size. (Christy Collection. )
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Other, but also must not marry into each other's families. It is indeed a gift of
the gods. Kubary gives the following extraordinary account of the relations
existing in the Palau or Pelew Islands: "The King of Molegojok, with which
Korror is at hereditary feud, is a native of Aremolunguj, while the King of Korror
comes from a Molegojok family ; both have to fight against their own homes.
Rgogor, the most powerful chief of Korror, is the son of a native of Ngiwal ;
while Karaj, the first minister of Angarard, and Iraklaj, the
King of Molegojok, are sisters' children, and yet in opposite
political camps."
Class-divisions among the Polynesians are, by reason of
taboo, as sharp as in the most thorough system of caste.
They fall into those which participate in the divine, and those
which are wholly excluded from it. The aristocratic principle
is seldom carried to such an extreme as here, where a stern
psychology remains inexorable even beyond the grave. In
Tonga the native people, in contradistinction to the immigrant
nobles, are regarded as having no immortal souls ; while the
souls of nobles return from the next world and inspire those of
their own order for the priesthood, so that the connection of
the tabooed class with the gods is never interrupted. The
boundary between these two classes is not everywhere alike,
though the divisions into chiefs, freemen, or slaves runs through
all Polynesia. In the Marquesas the untabooed class comprises
all women with their male attendants, as well as singers and
dancers ; in Rapa indeed all men were sacred, and had to
be fed by the women. Of the men of rank the greater number
are connected by ties of relationship, the memory of which is
preserved by professed genealogists, with the aid of pedigree-
sticks. The remembrance goes far back. When the palace
in Hawaii was dedicated none were admitted save those who
were connected with the sovereign in the tenth or some less
degree. Nobility carries practical advantages in the shape of
high posts of state. There are oligarchies, where the smaller
chiefs take their part in the government by performing inferior
Fly whisk (insignia of a serviccs as diplomatic envoys, intermediaries in secret matters
chief), from Pelew Is- of council, and such like. The child of a chief belonging to
lands — one-eighth real , ^-r • i r i i o a
size. (British Museum.) the t-liri, born of a low-class mother, is put to death. But in
some cases a man can overstep these boundaries, as in Tonga,
where clever craftsmen from among the people are raised to the tabooed class
as Tubunas. Outwardly, social intercourse displays itself in pleasing forms.
In Micronesia the division of classes is equally into nobles, freemen, and slaves.
The first, with the priests, are the most influential, the freemen the most numerous ;
the two often coincide or break up again into definite classes. Since, however, in
many cases property gives higher rank than birth, there are nobles who, as owners
of a district, rise to the position of little kings. Where, as in the Mortlocks, a
population of 3500 is divided into ten tribes and sixteen states, the road from the
chief to the noble is naturally as short as that from despotism to oligarchy.
In East Melanesia the classes correspond with the Polynesian divisions. In
THE FAMILY AND THE STATE IN OCEANIA
Fiji we find the distribution by businesses, as in Tonga. Here there are individual
tribes who carry on a distinct trade — sailors, fishermen, or carpenters. There are
even special villages of fighting-men, fishermen, carpenters, physicians, artists in
hair, potters. The most despised of all classes are the coolies. Even in New
Guinea every Motu village is distinguished for some one industry, one for its
women's dressmaking, another for its shell orna-
ments, others for pottery or coco-palm planting.
In regard to the certain existence of slavery in
these districts there is room for doubt. It has
always been lightly assumed. In the west, where
the feeble political structure does not allow of
warfare on a large scale, slavery is often absent ;
but in the Solomons we meet with it, accompany-
ing a more vigorous development of chief's
authority. It used to prevail even more exten-
sively in Fiji where successful risings of slaves
even took place.
An essential part, it not the very nucleus of
the state, must be sought in societies, embracing
the greatest number of the freemen in the bond
of common interests or the practice of a kind of
freemasonry. With their secret influence and
their public festive gatherings, they are one of the
most significant features in the life of these races,
especially the Melanesians. Their objects are of
a partly political, partly economic kind, and the
religious pretext is often solid, but often also
threadbare. In the Banks Islands and New
Hebrides members of the leagues called supwe or
suque hold quite the place of the chiefs. Their
importance is in inverse ratio to the strength of
the constitution ; and at the same time the influ-
ence which each one exercises is measured by his
rank or class. Those at the top decide who shall,
after due payment, rise into another class ; who
shall be excluded, and so on ; the essential distinc-
tion between them and the chiefs being all the
less from the fact that in other islands the chiefship
is often elective and limited by a council of elders. Paddles (chiefs insignia), from New Zea-
land— one -sixth real size. (Christy
In the popular tales, the poor orphan boy, favoured collection.)
by fortune, who elsewhere would marry the king's
daughter, here attains the highest rank in the suque. Thus in different ways a
powerful bias to aristocracy makes itself felt. The best-known society of this kind
was the Ehri ox Areoi of Tahiti, who formed a league traced back to the foundation
of a god. A grand master presided over each of the twelve classes, the seven grades
of which were distinguished by their tattooing ; and all were bound in a close
comradeship. Being warriors, they must remain celibate ; and if they should have
children, these must be killed. Their lands are tended by slaves. Even the first
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Europeans found the league degenerated ; it went about like a dramatic troupe, an
example of low immorality. Every race of Micronesia is broken up into closely
united societies. Among the nobles this takes the character of a retinue ; and one
may occasionally recognise in it some connection with inheritance in the female line.
Thus in the Ralick Islands the ruling chiefs belong to one clan, their sons to
another ; the chief must marry into the clan of his sons, and descent is reckoned
by the mother. The Micronesian bais, both of freemen and bondmen, appear at
the same time as phalansteries, with the object of organising labour. These have
been compared with regiments, and the obligation to enter them with compulsory
service. All boys must be entered in
their fifth or sixth year. One union,
however, never comprises more than
from thirty-five to forty individuals prac-
tically of the same age, so that an older
man belongs to three or four bais. If
an);- one gets a rise in rank, he must
pay a sum of money to each person
belonging to the same. There is also
a women's union; but they have no
house of their own.
This arrangement recurs in a similar
form in Melanesia. We find its earliest
forms in the West : New Britain has
its Duk-duk ; New Guinea and New
Caledonia something akin. Everywhere
some kind of ghost business comes in ;
it is even implied in the names. The
masquerades are said to represent ghosts;
and the strange noises that proceed from
the strictly unapproachable holy places
The suque became at last a social and public institution,
but formerly it was said to secure for its members a life in a beautiful place,
while the souls of non-members remained hanging to the trees like flying-foxes.
The initiated learn nothing beyond dances and songs, and how to mask them-
selves and how to behave. Less indecency than rumour whispered seems to
have prevailed in these conventicles. Women and children are excluded ; only
in the nangas of Fiji are women admitted, as is natural. In the tamata of the
Banks Islands what we may call a lively club-life has been developed. Formerly
hard tests involving physical pain were attached to admission ; but now every-
thing seems to have become much gentler and more cheerful. In the Duk-duk
of New Britain a secret society assumed the character of a " Vehme," and at last
exercised a real reign of terror with its extortions and executions.
Chief among the institutions which are independent of, and work counter to,
the systems known as hapu, veve, kema, etc., stands the family. In Micronesia it
recognises one head as the common centre of all the widely-scattered members,
each of whom is named after his place of abode. This is managed by the eldest
like an entailed property, attached to his name and title, and inherited by the
next eldest. The chiefs tutelary god is conceived to be attached to this house, so
Chief of Tae in the Morllocks. (Godeffroy Album. )
have a terrifying effect.
THE FAMILY AND THE STATE IN OCEANIA
283
%Mn
that it often receives more veneration than the chief himself. While he is alive
he has another house built for his wife and children, since after his death they
have to make way for his eldest brother, or the eldest
son of some former head of the family. ^
As regards the distribution of property, the Pacific
Islands offer a picture of great variety. Between
common possession and private ownership lies the
curious apportionment of real property, which under
" mother-right " devolves jointly, even to the crude form
existing among the Kemas of Florida, who on the death
of a member devour all his goods. In general, here as
elsewhere, Melanesia offers the simplest conditions ; in
Polynesia the transforming forces of the political develop-
ment in the direction of monarchy, and the husband's
power of independent acquisition, have had their effect,
and that again more in the east and north than in the
south. Even before the inroads of Europeans the feeling
for ownership had brought about distinctions ; thus in
small districts like the Gilbert Islands, the laws of
individual property and inheritance are not very different
from ours, allowing for the encroachment of adoption,
while social position is essentially determined by property
in land. But there are a number of institutions which
tend to level the differences, as admission by purchase
into the higher grades of the secret societies, the yearly
suspension of all rights of property during the great
festivals, or, in Samoa, the parties of pleasure among
friends and relations, at which the sucking-pig plays an
important part, and which resulted in so much extra-
vagance, leading to insolvency, that in 1888 King
Tamasese found it necessary to put a stop to them.^
Ownership in the soil is respected within the close
community of the village, but not always beyond its
limits. The soil is everywhere divided into village-
lands, fields, or gardens, and waste. The former are
accurately known, parcel by parcel, while to the last
there is no clear title ; though in Fiji its alienation by
the chiefs seems to have been felt as an infringement
of the common rights of property. The sale of land
was not at all usual in pre-European times. In view
of the facts that the land of the " two sides " often lies
mixed up in small plots of ground, so that land which
the father has reclaimed is to be found all among the
mother's hereditary domains, and that the rights to fruit
trees and to the soil may be vested in different persons,
Feather Sceptre from Hawaii.
(Christy Collection. )
' [For an account of these malanga, see Stevenson, A Footnote to History, p. 2. He says nothing about
any prohibition on Tamasese's part. Perhaps it extended only to the districts owning that puppet-monarch's
authority.]
284 THE HISTOKY OF MANKIND
the problems of conveyance are often insoluble. There is no private property in
land, only a usufruct through the family which cultivates its piece. Only what a
man has cleared and tilled with his own hand and the help of his children remains
his own and passes to them. Claims to rent on the part of the chiefs do not seem
primitive. But at the present day, if in the Solomon Islands a subject omits to hand
over to the chief a portion of his profits from the harvest, or the fishery, or of booty
taken, he commits a delinquency. In Fiji, military services, which took precedence of
all others, led in the event of a success to new grants of land, with all the inhabitants
as slaves ; entailing fresh obligations on the recipients. In many cases the entire
relation of subjects to a prince became one of gifts on the side of the former only.
The conditions of property among the Maoris perhaps correspond most nearly to
a primitive state of things. We may suppose that no individual possession was
valid here, each regarding the common land as his own. In other places a
wounded man could claim a title to ground on which drops of his blood had
fallen. Hunting and fishing grounds remained common property. In Melanesia
sons could enter as heirs upon property left by their father on condition of in-
demnifying his nephews by gifts of pigs, teeth, or shells. If he left only daughters,
the nephews of the male side inherited in preference ; and under this law the
children's property was several, while in the case of nephews and others inheriting
under mother-right it remained collective. Among the Maoris the strict rule
seems to have been broken in this respect, that tribal property was inalienable.
According as the husband lived with the wife's tribe, or the wife with the hus-
band's, the children followed. But the maternal tribe always claims the child
of those who pertain to it, even when they have married into another. The loss
which a tribe undergoes by the transference of children born within it, and their
property, to the mother's tribe, the latter endeavours to supply by gifts of land.
But since the children generally marry in the same tribe, the land never passes
out of the tribe's ownership. Class and tribal organisation with the Polynesians
forbids a distribution of the soil among families, but it could not, in the event of
the great development of a chiefs power, prevent the tribal right from being
administered by an individual. Thus in Hawaii tribal rights of ownership have
become transferred to the chief, and his subjects either cultivate a portion of the
land for him, or else have to offer him the first-fruits of every harvest, or render
compulsory service two days out of seven. Till quite recently he even received a
quarter of all wages earned by his subjects. They belonged to the land ; and the
lower classes were treated as serfs, bound to the soil. A proof that this depend-
ence was patriarchal, and not felt as oppressive, is furnished by the fact that the
sudden abolition of it through Christianity has been indicated as one cause of the
decrease of the population. In Tonga also a similar system has grown up, while
in the Gilberts the population is divided into Tokker, landowners ; Torro, people
who are allowed to enjoy the usufruct of the land ; and Bei, landless varlets, whom
the lord can make into Torro by a grant of land. The owners govern almost
exclusively, even where there are nominal kings. Almost everywhere in Polynesia,
indeed, the larger landowners generally exercise influence on the government.
The Bei, though distinguished neither by clothing nor way of life, seldom marry
into the higher classes.
The laws of taboo {tapu, in Melanesia tambu) have developed, especially in
Polynesia, in so partial a fashion, that they have passed beyond the limits of a
THE FAMILY AND THE STATE IN OCEANIA
28s
religious ban, and hamper all free n:iovement as much as does caste among the
Indian races. Only the law of taboo does not merely divide mankind by im-
passable gaps, it simply cuts the entire world in two, and that so sharply that
the whole excluded portion of mankind was constantly in danger of missing the
sacred boundary. Everything on earth, with the exception of men, falls into the
two classes of moa or sacred, and noa or common. Everything upon which the
power of the taboo is conceived as ipso facto resting belongs to the first, since it
is the property of the gods and of privileged men, or always reserved for these.
To the second belongs whatever is taboo-free, and so allowed to be used by all
men. But in addition to this, taboo can be transferred by mere external contact.
It is nevertheless possible to enfranchise by
certain ceremonies that which has been tabooed,
and thus also to set men free from it. If, in
consequence of this, the political and social im-
portance of the notion of taboo disguises its
religious nucleus, this exists none the less. Wc
have here before us a conception which has
grown out from the religious sphere, the use of
which in the art of government early secured it
an extension into the political domain, which
is no less subtle than unscrupulous. Besides
the gods, the forces of taboo are also at the
disposal of men who are possessed of the god-
like spirit, though, as it appears, not in the same
degree. Every one else and almost all women
were excluded from it. We may easily see that
among these races who bring the divine and
the human into extremely close relations, the
operations of taboo, originally a divine force,
must penetrate intimately all earthly conditions ;
so intimately, indeed, that in unhistoric minds
the idea might easily become established that taboo was in reality invented
only for social and political objects. In any case it is very easy to be misled.
By means of taboo personal property is secured ; at one time that which
belongs to a noble, and therefore tabooed, person cannot be used by others ;
at another time he, as the conveyer of taboo, is in a position to taboo
the property of others. It works beneficently if, under fear of a bad harvest,
the crop is tabooed with a view of preventing famine, until such time as
the chief removes the taboo from the fields. In Tonga, as well as in Hawaii,
it was the custom, when great festivities were celebrated with immoderate
extravagance, to lay a taboo on certain produce ; every landowner can in this
way protect his own piece of ground from persons lower in rank ; or even such
fishing -places as are reckoned private property. The fact that taboo is so
frequently laid upon articles of food, is due to the further reason that everything
connected with the tutelary deity of a tribe in animal form — the atua — must not
be touched by those that belonged to the tribe. The soul-eating of the gods, a
religious method of expressing wonder at the enigmatic process of digestion, plays
equally a part in this, and, lastly, selfishness is not without its effect. Thus, in
King Lunalilo of Hawaii,
graph.)
(From a photo-
286
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
the western islands, there were forests, roads, beaches, which were tambu. Un-
doubtedly, in the later times of religious corruption, taboo was shamelessly
misused for the selfish objects of priests and chiefs. Thus once upon a time
Samoan warrior in ta/a-clothing. (From the Godeffroy Album).
King Kamehameha I., who more than anyone else profited by this power to
serve his political ends, laid a taboo on a mountain near Honolulu, because he
took the quartz crystals found there for diamonds. When Hawaii in 1840
THE FAMILY AND THE STATE IN OCEANIA
287
tabooed for the space of five years all the herds of oxen which were being
unmercifully decimated, taboo became a measure of government. The old sacred
taboo becomes a police regulation. Formerly its influence cannot have been so
extensive, since divinity was limited to'the kings ; now it has been spread over all
the business of life.
Even where the custom itself has become remote from its religious origin, the
penalties for breach of taboo have retained a religious character. Thus, too, the
strongest trespasses against taboo obviously lay in the religious direction. Desecra-
tions of temples were the greatest sins. The penalties, indeed, fall mostly upon
the lower classes and the women ; for persons of rank there are means of averting
ill consequences. The old faith is falling to pieces ; while it still stood unbroken
Polynesian religion often demanded what was impossible. In Tahiti nobody
Ear-button and war-amulet of whale tooth, from the Marquesas — two-thirds real size.
(Christy Collection.)
might sleep with his feet turned towards the mawai ; in New Zealand the mere
looking at a corpse involved taboo. Sick people were tabooed because the illness
was caused by an atua, new-born children because they belonged to the gods,
women in child-bed on account of the child, and corpses because the soul hovered
round them. Whoever had taken up a dead man might not touch food before
the priests had made atonement for him by reciting the hymn of creation. Thus
breaches of taboo could easily be committed by inexperienced Europeans, and
therein lay a main cause of serious conflicts. Let us just imagine how, from the
spiritual and secular centres of these races, taboo spread as a burdensome and
threatening epidemic. In New Zealand it could even be incurred by the naming
of any article belonging to a person of rank. If in any village a strong taboo
prevailed, owing to the tattooing of some lads, the whole village was tabooed.
In Tahiti, when a man of rank fell ill, the whole district of which he was the
head was declared taboo by the priests. Universal silence must reign, no boat
might sail, no food be cooked, no fire lighted. Taboo enters into the life of the
lower classes in so burdensome a fashion as to produce a universal oppression, which
the priests and chiefs well understood how to turn to political account.
288
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Variations of detail indicate that here and there the inconvenience was
mitigated by a tacit understanding. Taboo-free persons were required to feed
those under taboo, and
^Vfe=£,\vi^ ~linWI''ll^Bs^s^==^^=^^^^s^=^;z:zi^ for this purpose slaves
■* ^^^^ captured in war were
very useful, since hav-
ing passed out of the
authority of their own
tribal tutelary spirit,
and not come under
the new one, they
were incapable of vio-
lating a taboo. There
must also be some
means of removing a
taboo, since otherwise
it would spread by
contagion until all the
free-will and uncon-
strained action of a
people was stifled.
The removal involves
various ceremonies.
Many of its effects,
indeed, are indelible,
and are interwoven
with the life of genera-
tions to come, even
when they are no longer
understood. Thus the
names of dead chiefs,
the spots where they
have died, large burial-
places, are tabooed ;
which explains why in
even the more thicklyr
peopled islands many
uninhabited tracts are
found. Christianity,
too, has been willing to make use of taboo to enforce its requirement of humble
and obedient hearts.
In the society of the small islands, cloven as it is by reason of mother-right,
caste, and secret societies, and with a powerful priestly class, we seldom meet with
kings, in the European sense, such as Kamehameha I. Europeans found them
because they looked for them ; and many first rose to greatness by means of the
presents received from Europeans and the respect paid by them. In New Zealand
the ariki, or divine chief, instructed by his father or grandfather in the sacred
traditions, stood high above secular chiefs and priests. He comprised in himself
Warrior of the Solomon Islands. (From the Godeffroy Album.)
THE FAMILY AND THE STATE IN OCEANIA
289
the power of both, could put on and take off taboo, or decide the time for field-
operations, and the places for burials. On the other hand, the spiritual power or
mana of the chief, if he were not ariki as well, depended on his personal authority ;
and the mana of the priest, if he again were not also ariki, was only obeyed in
respect of his relation to the gods. Thus, too, hereditary chiefship is only recognised
where it is believed that there has been a transmission of the mana. The mystical
Fijian warrior. (From the Godeffroy Album. )
element in this conception exercises a great power over people's minds. When
a powerful chief in the New Hebrides has his son brought up as a Christian, it is
taken for granted that the spiritual force which would qualify him for the succes-
sion vanishes. So again in the Solomon Islands the dignity of a chief is in
general not hereditary ; but the bravest man is elected to the post by the elders.
In some other islands, too, the elders have the paramount influence, while the chiefs
dignity is merely nominal. Similarly the elders are the priests, the mediators
between the living and the dead, and what is tabooed by them is sacred.
Practical experience has taught white men that in New Britain and New Ireland
U
290 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
even the greatness of power which they wish to see the chiefs possess in the
interests of order is hardly to be artificially created ; and the same in New Guinea.
On the other hand, wherever warlike conditions prevailed, the dignity of the chief
grew in importance. It was especially so in Fiji, where we have a completely
military organisation, under which the villages tributary to one chief, and governed
by chiefs of lower rank, were divided into official districts. The appellations of
the chiefs also point to their military character. Often they appear merely as
doughty warriors who, if they do not spring from a family of the rank of chiefs,
have been adopted into one on account of their courage. Saturated as this life ■
is with religion, and military as is its character, a splitting of the kingship between
a peace-king with shadowy power and a war-king was sure to follow. Thus
beside the head of the state another figure often towers up, whether the war-chief
or, as in Radack, the commander of the great ship. In Samoa the chiefship has
undergone a development in the direction of aristocracy ; in Hawaii, in that of
monarchy. In the Samoan party-fights, which since 1876 have come into contact
with European politics, the electoral chiefs always came to the front, while the
king appeared dependent on them. In the neighbouring Gilberts the preponder-
ance of landowners has created a sort of plutocracy. They recur in Hawaii as
Alii, and in Kamehameha's monarchical constitution they held a modest position
as the " assembly of chiefs," with different ranks of taboo. A representative
intermediary between king and people appears in some form everywhere ; the
fono of Samoa, the aha-alii of Hawaii, show it in various stages of development.'*;
It has a strong tendency to assume the character of a secret society. Special
assemblies are called together by the chief or his representative on important
occasions, especially when war threatens. They deliberate often for days together
with many ceremonies and lengthy speeches. From this the transition to modern
constitutionalism or its imitation was not difficult. The constitution of Kame-
hameha III. ordained that the heir to the crown should be nominated by king
and chiefs acting together. Failing this the chiefs were to do what was necessary
in conjunction with the representatives of the people. Here again the aristocratic
principle corrects the patriarchal, and thus the high pitch which despotism has
reached rests more upon the pressure of class and caste than upon the over-
powering will of a single man. Its profound effects can only be explained in
this way ; only in this way could it permeate all conditions of life. In any case
the effects were far less upon the privileged than upon those who had no rights
— the oppressed ; and thence also came the sadly rapid decay of this society.
An element which is often overlooked among the state institutions of the
Oceanians is the small size of their territories. On the lowest stage of the
formation of states, we find little communes, or little groups of communes, allied in
blood, which vegetate under their own village chiefs or elders. In the largest part
of New Guinea, even these dignitaries are lacking ; social and family relations
embracing also political, and every village on the whole forming a state of itself.
In the Ruk group, they speak of thirty-nine tribes and seventy-three states. Since
there is no room for the development of a power founded upon extensive posses-
sion in land and people, it is less the actual conditions of power than traditions,
personal relations, and political intrigues, which decide matters in the island groups.
A certain order of the lands, in point of rank, is traditional from old times ; only
one larger archipelago formed a single state, and how often did that fall to pieces ?
THE FAMILY AND THE STATE IN OCEANIA
291
■a
The very largest islands, New Guinea and New Zealand,
never possessed a single state of any importance.
As in the case of class organisation, so also in the govern-
ment, there is a patriarchal air. The people are very sensitive
on the point whether the king takes trouble, or utilises the
advantages of his office to his own profit. Thus in Kubary's
time, the King of Korror was deposed for his avarice. In
Tahiti, strangers might see the king putting his hand to the
paddle in his own canoe, and the meanest man could speak
freely with him. These are the humanising effects of nature
which bestows her gifts with equal freedom on rich and poor,
and of the small scale on which everything was constructed.
But traces of an anarchical time emerge even more strongly
than those of the patriarchal. Before the nomination of a
successor, an interregnum as a change from the preceding
and subsequent hard times of compulsion is wont to loosen
all political restraints ; it is a legalised anarchy.
The high position of the prince is expressed in a number
of ceremonies, putting him on a level with the gods. External
insignia are reserved for him in the first place. In Hawaii
feather- mantles arid necklaces of whales' teeth ; in the
Admiralty Islands double chains of shells ; in the Solomons
arm-rings of shell, shell trumpets, fly-whisks, and other things.
Passers-by had to throw themselves in the dust, to bare their
shoulders or strip altogether ; the king could only be addressed
when sitting, and replied through a special orator. He was
greeted by having his hands and feet smelt ; in Hawaii, a
special court-language was used around the prince, which had
to remain unknown to the people, otherwise the chiefs changed
it. Samoa also had its court language.^ In Micronesia,
since the name of a chief may not be uttered, he takes when
entering upon his dignities a name by way of title. In
Kasaie, this name denotes nothing else than god ; anything
recalling former names is sedulously avoided. A chief cannot
eat or drink out of the dish of another, nor may his vessels
be used by others, or his house be entered by any one uninvited.
Not only have the commons to observe all this in regard to
the chiefs, but the chiefs also in regard to their superiors.
In the Solomon Islands, any one who steps on a chiefs
shadow incurs death, or at least a severe pecuniary penalty,
the parallel to the Polynesian exaggeration of taboo. From
Polynesia, too, comes the practice among Fijian chiefs, of
keeping court barbers, who by reason of their right of touching
the sacred hair, come within taboo, so that others have to feed
them. The heralds of princes are inviolable even in war.
T3 ^
.-S
O (/I
O (U
'' [" For the real noble a whole private dialect is set apart. The common
names for an axe, for blood, for bamboo, a bamboo knife, a pig, food, entrails, and
an oven are taboo in his presence." — Stevenson, A Footnote to History^
292 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Many obscure practices are no doubt connected with the chiefs position as priests,
Why does the first chief in Erromango receive a stone with a round hole in it?
Why does the consecration of the chief in Anaiteum consist in being drawn round
a newly felled tree with his crown on ?
The whole existence of nobles and princes on this earth is often regarded as
something only transitory, an earthly episode in the lives of these sons of the gods.
They come from heaven, and destiny holds them fast ; they return only as souls
to Bolotu ; the threads of their existence are attached on high. What wonder
then if the same grade of holiness was ascribed to the kings as to gods, and to the
other nobles in a ratio diminishing according to their rank ? The king, as the bearer
of taboo, attains an altitude which is dangerous to himself. Originally, he could
not enter any house belonging to a subject; since otherwise it would be forfeited
to him. In Tahiti he had himself carried over land which he was too sacred to
touch. The South Sea races have, however, discovered means of averting, at least
in some measure, the evil consequences which must have resulted from this system.
Of all those around the king, his brothers stand nearest to him. Occa-
sionally, when he entrusts a commission to a son, he gives him his staff and whisk
as credentials ; otherwise, the king's messenger carries a green bough. A prime
minister, who, where things are on a small scale, will probably be the commander-
in-chief, forms a necessary supplement to the sacred sovereign. This post is also
held by a priest, as in Hawaii. There, without any definite intention to that effect,
royalty assumed a character with two aspects, which found expression also in
court ceremonies. Thus it occurred that even when European political ideas
began to make their way into Hawaii, the constitutional notion of a leading and
responsible minister was not wholly strange. To the king's suite belong also the
keepers of the regalia. In Tahiti, the feather girdle and fillet are guarded by
officials. In Nukahiva the chief is accompanied by his fire-lighter. Kamehameha
compelled the chiefs of the subject islands to live near his palace, and go about
with him. The value attached to genealogy made the custodians of tradition
an important element of the court. In New Zealand, this office was entrusted to
hump-backed men, in order that if both chiefs, father and son, should fall together
in battle, the custody of the legends might be safe in the hands of those who
were compelled to stay at home.
The exuberant development of trade and finance, especially in East Melanesia
and Micronesia, was all the more closely allied with politics, from the fact that the
king used to have a monopoly of the only two sources of wealth — the manufacture
of coin and trade. Here, as on the west coast of Africa, trade enriched the chief,
and raised him to a far higher power than he would otherwise have acquired.
Breaches of law are rare. In their fundamental character they were formerly
breaches of divine ordinances. For this reason, the penalties are extraordinarily
severe, and ordeals of every kind play the chief part in judicial proceedings. In
later times, the opposite came about ; money penalties became universal, and
formed the chief sources of revenue for the king and the chiefs. But besides this,
an offence against the laws involved a certain dishonour ; boys and old men were
not punished, as being foolish people. New laws are announced to the people^;;:
with a flourish of the war trumpet ; a prohibition to enter upon land, or to pluck *
fruit, is signified by spears stuck in the ground, or bundles of leaves tied to
branches. For private injuries in the Solomon Islands, every man exacts the best
THE FAMILY AND THE STATE IN OCEANIA 293
penalty he can with his own fist ; but if the relatives intervene, the strife is in
many cases appeased, after long speeches and ferocious gestures, by the payment
of a fine. In New Caledonia, an adulteress is strangled by one of her own and
one of her husband's relations. Persons convicted of magic are painted black,
adorned with flowers, and made to jump into the sea.
Intercourse between one tribe and another is conducted through inviolable
heralds, old women for choice. These also act as trade intermediaries on
'Change. On these occasions the chief gives knotted cords of rattan and reeds,
— as many as the articles included in the commission, while the length of the reeds
indicates their importance. White and green, in streamers or boughs, are signs of
peace; black and red, in colours or feathers, signify war and death. In New
Guinea, the leaflets of a coco-palm leaf are partly taken off, then the stem is
halved, and the halves handed to the parties in token of peace. Individual tribes
form alliances for other objects ; those of the Fijians are very expensive, for the
allies have not only to be fed, but they have a full right to give their orders as lords
throughout the territory of their friends. The intercourse of daily life is strictly
formal ; in Pelew, the word mugul, that is, " bad form," is so all-powerful, that
only the equivalent for taboo can dispute supremacy with it. As with the Malays
and other races, it is mugul to ask anybody " what is your name ? " though a
greeting may quite well take the form " who are you ? " The standing question
by way of opening a conversation is,," no news? " or " give your news." At parting
they say simply, " I'm off." In general, these customs are very like those of the
Polynesians, and in former times perhaps were still more so. Thus the ancient
form of greeting among the Pelew Islanders, of rubbing your face with the hand
or foot of the person to be greeted, recurs in the Hervey Islands, together with the
Polynesian rubbing of noses. So again does the reception of friends, with words
recited sing-song fashion in chorus. In all circumstances, custom is more powerful
than morality. It is optimism to take for morality the indignation shown by
Micronesian girls at trifling violations of custom.
The number of weapons in use is difiicult to harmonise with the gentle
character belonging to most Polynesian tribes. Yet the predominance of militarism
is not everywhere merely apparent. The Fijian cannot be described as funda-
mentally warlike by nature, yet the entire archipelago is seldom free from war.
It lies in their circumstances and usages, and is the simple consequence of their
numerous independent lordships. A phenomenon no more unusual than the cack-
ling of hens by night, is regarded as a warlike prognostic, whereas in Europe we
at least allow ourselves the time which elapses between one comet and another. In
Polynesia some races are more warlike than others ; the Maoris might be called
the Zulus or Apaches of Polynesia. War, as a necessity, passes like a red, very
red thread, through the whole life of Marquesans, Tahitians, and Gilbert Islanders.
The military renown of the small Paumotu Islands was such that Tahitian chiefs
fetched mercenaries thence. The very narrowness of the space contributed to de-
velop such conditions ; the smaller the states the more embittered and unconciH-
atory their politics. An inexhaustible source of hostilities is an accusation on the
part of one family group that another has done despite or injury to their dead ;
breach of promise of marriage is another. Therewith naturally the general pros-
perity suffers, not only that of natives but also of foreign settlers, so that it has
always been the effort of the missionaries to bring about a union of the different
294 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
districts. But it has been in vain ; the tendency to small states had sealed the ruin
of Polynesia long before the people had thought about European culture and the
excess of it. Herein lies one of the impediments which has compelled the roots
of Polynesian culture to spread laterally instead of vertically ; we need only think
of the way in which the New Zealanders have split up.
To the frequency of wars conduced also the standing organisations of the
military character. Kamehameha I. founded a special army the name of which was
"eating on foot"; that \s, always ready for battle. In the Society Islands and
elsewhere, a warrior caste existed as a permanent suite to the chiefs. In every
district may be found a village whose inhabitants possess the right in war time of
opening the battle. The post in the vanguard is highly esteemed as a post of
honour, since it secures a special authority in times of peace and a conspicuous
share in all festive enjoyments. On all the great islands there are specially war-
like tribes, — on the north coast of New Guinea the Mansuari, in Fiji men who
adopt a celibate life. The very frequency of naval wars gives rise to a certain
organisation, since the guidance of the war-canoes can only be entrusted to practised
hands. In sea encounters, boats which belong together are indicated by some
common sign- — a bundle of palm leaves, a strip of tapa, or a picture of an animal
on the same material. In just the same way people fighting on land wear some
sign by which they may be recognised, and these are changed every two or three
days in order to avoid ruses on the part of the enemy. They paint particular
figures upon their bodies in black, white, or red, wear a shell round the neck or
the arm, or dress their hair in some peculiar way.
But in their opinion every war has sufficient ground ; battle is to them the
best solution of a mass of contested questions, and their final arbiter is the god of
war. Violations of the rights of property, annexation of land, fishing and hunting
in disputed districts lead to wars, still more do violations of taboo, marriages
between persons belonging to hostile tribes, murder, adultery, witchcraft, and, most
frequently of all, personal insults and blood feuds. Whole generations labour to
wash away spots on the honour of their forefathers, while to nourish the sentiment
of revenge is one of a chiefs first duties. The Navigator's Islands testify that envy
of the success of a peacefully working tribe may contribute its fair share to the
kindling of ever new wars. That among the causes of war women have their place
can be all the more understood from the fact that a fundamental rule is " Once a
chief's wife always his wife." Wars of succession are also recorded.
Lastly, a further ground of quarrels is to be found in the complicated feudal
relations. Connected with this is the fact that in kingdoms so small as these all
personal relations are thought more of than would be the case in larger states, to
which further importance is given by the manner in which social ties are
indebted for their vitality to the half monarchical, half oligocratic constitution,
so that the dissolution of personal relations must also, as observed by Semper,
relax the political relation of states to each other. It is in the nature of these
people neither to break wholly with each other nor to unite with each other
frankly. What prevails is neither open war nor undoubted peace ; small causes are
sufficient to evoke a tendency in one or the other direction.
In Polynesia war is conducted with formalities no less strict than those which
govern peaceful intercourse, and within their limits it often proceeds in a fairly
harmless manner. As a chronic evil it became converted into a settled institution.
Printed hy Hie Bibliographisthes Iniflttul, Leipzig.
AN AUSTRALIAN FAMILY-PARTY FROM NEW SOUTH WALES.
THE FAMILY AND THE STATE IN OCEANIA 295
Head-stealing is partly the object, partly the symbol of warfare. It can never
degenerate into aimless murder ; and it is rarely that more than one man is killed.
Both sides know quite well what is taking place, and cunning on one side is met
by precaution and indefatigable vigilance on the other. This kind of warfare is
recognised by the Micronesians as a chief institution of their political life, for the
further reason that it is essential to the provision of means for meeting state-
expenditure. The head chief pays with his own money. He has considerable
outgoings at his accession, and must defray those of all the muis, ruks, and other
festivities. But the country pays no taxes, and the expenses must be met somehow.
That is the use of the war-dance. The head chief travels through friendly districts
with a head which his warriors have secured, executes the war-dance, and receives
for the performance a fee proportionate to the size of the country. But, in order
to prevent too great a drain of money in any one direction, the rule is that when
one village has finished with the head, another has a turn with it. Thus, though
by a somewhat unusual method, the very usual object of keeping money in circula-
tion is attained. Head-hunting is common in New Guinea, as, for example,
among the Tugeris, who cut off the head with a bamboo knife ; and so too in the
Malay Archipelago. Among the Motus he only who has killed a man may wear
the half-skull of a horn-bill in his hair. A woman will do ; and there is no
objection to the employment of treachery.
Unluckily, where things are on a smaller scale, as in the Marshalls, war
degenerates into an incessant devastation of fields and plantations. It is therefore
easy to understand why bullet-proof houses of stone are supplanting huts of wood
and straw. There is nothing about which the gods are so keen as war : nor is
anything an occasion of larger sacrifices. Before coming to blows with men,
it is necessary to come to an understanding with the gods. Temples half buried
in weeds are tidied up or rebuilt. The greater the sacrifice, the firmer is the
confidence. Among the Maoris the priests had to decide whether or not the war
will be victorious. Sticks were stuck in the earth, and if they remained upright it
denoted a loss, and the war was deferred. In other cases food was cooked for the
gods and the fighting-men ; then the troops started, followed by slaves and
women, who had to attend to transport and commissariat. All warriors were
" taboo." The command was allotted to the boldest fighter, who was also expected
to be adept in the kind of eloquence calculated to rouse the courage of the warriors
immediately before the fight, He would spring forward in the front of the line,
and with glowing words extol the greatness and the fame of the tribe, the favour
of the gods, the valour of their forefathers ; but while enumerating the injuries
which had yet to be avenged, he would avoid bringing into prominence the
dangers of the moment. The excitement rose to the point of fury. The warriors,
kindled by the discourse, would fling off their mats, smear their bodies with
charcoal and the sacred red-ochre, adorn their hair with feathers, and dash into
the war-dance. In this they would expend a good deal of bodily strength, with
the view of kindling the passion of battle in their hearts ; they crouched down in
rows one behind another, leapt up suddenly at the word of command, jumped on
one leg to one side, then on the other leg to the other side, with their meres raised
aloft, and then leaping off both feet into the air, brandish their weapons, shouting
their songs in quick time. Old women, smeared with ochre, danced in front of
the lines. Then the most renowned warriors advanced, and challenged the foe
296 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
with opprobrious language, such as Pritchard heard in Samoa. " You banana-
eaters of Manono, let Moso twist your necks ! " — " You coco-nut eaters of Aana,
may your tongues be torn out and burnt." — " Here is my club, to knock down
those Savaii pigs. Where is the Savaii pig who wants to be killed ? " — " Fry that
Atua-king, who shall die by my spear ! " — " Here is the man-eating gun ! " —
" Where are they, that dirty herd who pretend to be men ? " Finally the two
sides would dash furiously upon each other, and a series of single combats would
ensue. The event would be decided by the fall or the victory of sottie one great
warrior and the consequent retreat or advance of his side. It was seldom possible
to rally the fugitives ; his back once turned, every man ran for his life. The
victors returned from the pursuit to the field of battle, and marked with their
spears the spots where warriors had fallen. The Maoris used to examine especi-
ally if they had had their fists clenched ; if so, they had fallen in the moment of
victory. Their own wounded they carried away. Then they placed one of the
Sacrificial litiife, available also as an instrument of torture, from Easter Island — one-half real size.
(Berlin Museum. ) '
enemy's dead aside as an offering to the gods, and laid the heads of the others at the
chief's feet. The wounded were tortured and clubbed to death.
Gunpowder has changed the style of fighting. The islanders, with their dislike
of danger and preference for attacking only when they have a manifest advantage,
took very readily to fighting at a distance and promiscuous shooting from ambushes
all day long. The art of taking cover developed more rapidly than that of attack-
ing. In Fiji they fought around fortresses made of wooden palisades : the women
and children having been removed, before the siege began, to a place of safety.
Spears were thrown and stones slung from side to side, even red hot stones to set
fire to the woodwork, but the besieging party seldom arrived at assaults in the
open. Treachery, stratagem, hunger, intimidation, were the principal means to
which they resorted. Clever utilisation of natural advantages in the ground,
palisades, ramparts faced with stone and loop-holed, and, in the case of fortified
villages or pahs in the plain, muddy ditches as well, added strength to the defence.
The chief entrance was flanked by walls in the form of bastions and the gate
formed of sliding timbers. For naked aborigines a thorn hedge makes an almost
impenetrable rampart. Within the fortress a sentry was posted in an elevated
position ; the sign of danger or of a threatening attack was given by drums.
When the wind was favourable they challenged the enemy by flying banners and
dragon-like things of many colours in his direction, but a war of this kind often
ends without bloodshed. Traces of an international law, which has in view the
THE FAMILY AND THE STATE IN OCEANIA 297
mitigation of even this kind of war, may be recognised in the fact tliat so long as
their patience holds out both sides spare the adversaries' fruit trees. On the other
hand, we find no trace of any idea that it is more honourable to win in open fight
than by means of cunning and ruse, and accordingly^ there are no limits to the
artifices which may be employed in war. The rage of the victors often spares
neither women nor children, and in this respect the greatest atrocities have been
committed. Even Fiji has its legend of the chief's leap, — a fugitive chief is said
to have thrown himself in desperation from a rock in the island of Wakaia.
The objection of the Polynesians to action in the open is marked also in the
little use which they make of their boats in actual sea fighting. The famous war
canoes served mainly for transporting the warriors, and aquatic engagements
only took place when hostile war-canoes met accidentally. The method was to
upset the opponents' canoe, which rendered it easy to club to death the
helpless swimming crew.
As soon as the lust of battle is appeased on either
side, and the accurately kept debit and credit account
shows that winnings and losses are balanced, the armies
take steps towards peace. The intelligence that peace
is desired is conveyed by neutrals, and either side sends
as herald some old man related to both and gifted
with eloquence. The periods of hostilities are con-
cluded by carouses, though deep down in all hearts
a secret wish of beginning again at a seasonable moment
is still active. Treaties of peace are in reality only
armistices. The Samoan system, known as malo, which
went so far as to slay thevanquished when he approached Human lower jaw set as an arm-
.., . r i_ • • i cr \-- T J ring, from New Guinea. (Christy
With Signs of submission, to carry off his wite and collection.)
children, and ravage his fields and houses, or else
to a gradual ruining of him by extortion, not unfrequently compelled the flames
of revolt to break out afresh. Whole tribes have been known to migrate in order
to escape oppression of this kind. In 1 848 the whole population of Western
Upolu removed to the eastern part of the island.
Many features in the existence of the Oceanians can only be understood
when we realize the small value attached to human life. This hangs together
with the over-population of island areas, and has contributed powerfully to the
formation of colonies, but it leads also to depopulation, and throws a sanguinary
gleam over all their social life. Human sacrifices were universal in Polynesia
before the time of Europeans, and cannibalism was extensively practised. Both
are closely bound up with religion and war, while human sacrifice is intimately
connected with the festivals of the dead. In certain sacred functions the priest
required it. Thus men or portions of men — for example eyes, which were regarded
as pleasing to the gods — were buried in the foundations of temples ; while at the
building of war-canoes human sacrifices were absolutely necessary. The gods to
whom men were sacrificed were various, but the principal were Tangaroa and
Oro ; the killing was done in Oro's temple, and the victim deposited in Tanga-
roa's. As everywhere, the largest number of human victims was furnished by
prisoners of war and slaves. The selection of the victim depended in some places
upon the priests, who, after some time passed in the temple, came to the people
296 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
with opprobrious language, such as Pritchard heard in Samoa. " You banana-
eaters of Manono, let Moso twist your necks ! " — " You coco-nut eaters of Aana,
may your tongues be torn out and burnt." — " Here is my club, to knock down
those Savaii pigs. Where is the Savaii pig who wants to be killed ? " — •' Fry that
Atua-king, who shall die by my spear ! " — " Here is the man-eating gun ! " —
" Where are they, that dirty herd who pretend to be men ? " Finally the two
sides would dash furiously upon each other, and a series of single combats would
ensue. The event would be decided by the fall or the victory of sotne one great
warrior and the consequent retreat or advance of his side. It was seldom possible
to rally the fugitives ; his back once turned, every man ran for his life. The
victors returned from the pursuit to the field of battle, and marked with their
spears the spots where warriors had fallen. The Maoris used to examine especi-
ally if they had had their fists clenched ; if so, they had fallen in the moment of
victory. Their own wounded they carried away. Then they placed one of the
Sacrificial knife, available also as an instrument of torture, from Easter Island— one-half real size.
(Berlin IVtuseum. ) '
enemy's dead aside as an offering to the gods, and laid the heads of the others at the
chief's feet. The wounded were tortured and clubbed to death.
Gunpowder has changed the style of fighting. The islanders, with their dislike
of danger and preference for attacking only when they have a manifest advantage,
took very readily to fighting at a distance and promiscuous shooting from ambushes
all day long. The art of taking cover developed more rapidly than that of attack-
ing. In Fiji they fought around fortresses made of wooden palisades : the women
and children having been removed, before the siege began, to a place of safety.
Spears were thrown and stones slung from side to side, even red hot stones to set
fire to the woodwork, but the besieging party seldom arrived at assaults in the
open. Treachery, stratagem, hunger, intimidation, were the principal means to
which they resorted. Clever utilisation of natural advantages in the ground,
palisades, ramparts faced with stone and loop-holed, and, in the case of fortified
villages or pahs in the plain, muddy ditches as well, added strength to the defence.
The chief entrance was flanked by walls in the form of bastions and the gate
formed of sliding timbers. For naked aborigines a thorn hedge makes an almost
impenetrable rampart. Within the fortress a sentry was posted in an elevated
position ; the sign of danger or of a threatening attack was given by drums.
When the wind was favourable they challenged the enemy by flying banners and
dragon-like things of many colours in his direction, but a war of this kind often
ends without bloodshed. Traces of an international law, which has in view the
THE FAMILY AND THE STATE IN OCEANIA 297
mitigation of even this kind of war, may be recognised in the fact that so long as
their patience holds out both sides spare the adversaries' fruit trees. On the other
hand, we find no trace of any idea that it is more honourable to win in open fight
than by means of cunning and ruse, and accordingly there are no limits to the
artifices which may be employed in war. The rage of the victors often spares
neither women nor children, and in this respect the greatest atrocities have been
committed. Even Fiji has its legend of the chief's leap, — a fugitive chief is said
to have thrown himself in desperation from a rock in the island of Wakaia.
The objection of the Polynesians to action in the open is marked also in the
little use which they make of their boats in actual sea fighting. The famous war
canoes served mainly for transporting the warriors, and aquatic engagements
only took place when hostile war-canoes met accidentally. The method was to
upset the opponents' canoe, which rendered it easy to club to death the
helpless swimming crew.
As soon as the lust of battle is appeased on either
side, and the accurately kept debit and credit account
shows that winnings and losses are balanced, the armies
take steps towards peace. The intelligence that peace
is desired is conveyed by neutrals, and either side sends
as herald some old man related to both and gifted
with eloquence. The periods of hostilities are con-
cluded by carouses, though deep down in all hearts
a secret wish of beginning again at a seasonable moment
is still active. Treaties of peace are in reality only
armistices. The Samoan system, known as malo, which
went so far as to slay the vanquished when he approached Human lower jaw set as an arm-
■ ,1. ■ c ■\^ • • i. cc X.- T J ring, from New Guinea. (Christy
With signs of submission, to carry oft his wife and collection )
children, and ravage his fields and houses, or else
to a gradual ruining of him by extortion, not unfrequently compelled the flames
of revolt to break out afresh. Whole tribes have been known to migrate in order
to escape oppression of this kind. In 1848 the whole population of Western
Upolu removed to the eastern part of the island.
Many features in the existence of the Oceanians can only be understood
when we realize the small value attached to human life. This hangs together
with the over-population of island areas, and has contributed powerfully to the
formation of colonies, but it leads also to depopulation, and throws a sanguinary
gleam over all their social life. Human sacrifices were universal in Polynesia
before the time of Europeans, and cannibalism was extensively practised. Both
are closely bound up with religion and war, while human sacrifice is intimately
connected with the festivals of the dead. In certain sacred functions the priest
required it. Thus men or portions of men — for example eyes, which were regarded
as pleasing to the gods — were buried in the foundations of temples ; while at the
building of war-canoes human sacrifices were absolutely necessary. The gods to
whom men were sacrificed were various, but the principal were Tangaroa and
Oro ; the killing was done in Oi'o's temple, and the victim deposited in Tanga-
roa's. As everywhere, the largest number of human victims was furnished by
prisoners of war and slaves. The selection of the victim depended in some places
upon the priests, who, after some time passed in the temple, came to the people
298 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
and indicated the victim whom the deity desired. The Maoris used after a
battle to collect the bodies of the foe, cut off scalp and right ear for the gods,
and dig two rows of cooking pits, in one of which the cooking was done for the
gods only. When the meal was dressed the chief first swallowed the brain and
eyes of one of the fallen, raw ; then followed his sons or nearest relatives, and
after them the whole company fell to upon the hideous meal. On these occasions
gluttony was the rule. What remained over was packed in hampers and sent to
neighbouring tribes who, by the fact of accepting and consuming the present,
declared themselves friends of the victors.
Returning home, the troop bore the heads of its slain chiefs as sacred relics,
while those of the enemy were fixed on spears. For every chief who had fallen
the life of one of his slaves was required, while the heads of the enemy were
stuck on the palisades surrounding the village, and derided. Then followed the
ceremony of taking off the taboo from the victorious force. Scalp locks were
fastened to reeds, and with these the warriors executed a dance to the chanting
of the priest. The business was concluded by the tedious task of mummifying
the chiefs' heads. These were boiled, smoked, and dried in the air ; brain, tongue,
and eyes were removed, tattooing and hair preserved. The very form of the
lineaments was often still recognisable. Some tribes in the neighbourhood of the
East Cape are said to have mummified even entire bodies. Others fixed eyes of
bright stones in the skulls ; and in New Britain these were on great occasions
worn as masks by the younger men, that they might acquire the spirit of their
former owners. Among the Maoris cannibalism was undoubtedly always con-
nected with revenge, and their wars were always wars of revenge. This trait
deserves to be remarked as distinguishing their cannibalism from that which has
assumed either a more everyday character, or one distinctively religious.
When we find the traditions unanimously affirming that cannibalism was not
practised among the earlier generations of immigrants, we may no doubt imagine
it to be one of those phenomena which correspond with a certain retrogression in
the public life of the community, brought about by internal quarrels ; but further,
that it came in with the increase of the population, which in many islands led
undoubtedly to overcrowding. It disappeared and came up again, showing that
there was always a favourable soil for it somewhere. We are led to the same
conclusion by considering its geographical distribution. Well-ascertained centres
of undisguised cannibalism are noticed in places so far apart as New Zealand, the
Marquesas, the Palliser Islands, and the Paumotus. The Hawaiian and Tahitian
groups, the Society Islands, and, for a period, Tonga, were free from it during
the time of the more frequent visits of Europeans towards the end of the last
century. But throughout Polynesia there exist both objects and legends in which
traces survive of a time when it extended more widely. When we find that in
the Marquesas cannibal feasts were preceded by the cutting off of the victim's
hair, to make arm -rings and necklets of magical potency, we cannot fail
to see a cannibal significance in the frequent use of human hair to adorn
spears and helmets, or of human bones and skulls as drinking -vessels ; or
in the Hawaiian custom of putting the eye of a human victim in the oil
used to anoint the king. Strong men's bones are available as talismans. In
New Zealand, fish-hooks were, according to Forster, furnished with a jagged bit
of human bone. The people also had necklaces of human teeth ; and in
THE FAMILY AND THE STATE IN OCEANIA 299
Hawaii a bone hung round the neck by a string of human hair counted as a high
distinction.
The notion of the gods eating souls runs all through Polynesian mythology.
In Aitulaki a god was called Terongo, the man-eater. Tangaroa caught souls
with a net or a noose and ate them up. Souls of people who died suddenly were
devoured by the god. This conception might easily pass into that of eating the
body with the soul ; and therewith human sacrifices, and, in the uncertainty of
the boundary between divine and human, cannibalism received a divine justification.
Among most Melanesian tribes cannibalism is a settled institution, often in
a very extensive degree. In many places it has, for various reasons, disappeared,
as in Teste between the visits of Moresby in 1872 and Finsch in 1885. Else-
where human flesh is in such request that even the remains of a relative who has
died a natural death will serve for a repast. We find also examples of a recent
extension of the bad habit by a sort of infection. Thus Saa caught it from San
Christoval, Florida from somewhere to the westward, perhaps Savo. The Torres
Islanders bake the heads which they have captured, and eat the eyes and pieces
from the cheeks. The Fijians used long wooden forks, to eat not only prisoners
of war, but members of certain particular tribes who were condemned to deliver
one of their number for a cannibal feast. In the Solomons prisoners were even
sold for cannibal purposes. Brown the missionary was told in New Britain that
they retained the custom with the view of intimidating their enemies. When we
find a human skull with the back smashed in, the brains having been swallowed
through the opening, we may safely infer cannibalism ; and such are found in
quantities on D'Entrecasteaux. Cannibalism often merely expresses hatred and
rage against a slain enemy, just as when a captured foe is burnt alive. A craving
for flesh meat can seldom be assigned as a cause ; most readily perhaps among
the indigent natives of New Caledonia. Yet even these go back to mythology and
declare that men are fishes and therefore eatable. Human sacrifices, with subse-
quent consumption of the corpse or portions of it, form in Oceania also a main-
stay of cannibalism. One receives the impression that life in those parts is
always passed under the foreboding of being sacrificed. Cannibalism has also
been maintained where it would otherwise have disappeared, owing to its associa-
tion with skull worship. The Hattams, among whom it is a custom to decorate
their dwelling-houses with the heads of dead persons, desecrate the graves of their
neighbours in a shameful way, and at every feast in honour of a newly-captured
head cannibalism blazes up afresh.
Infanticide was a recognised institution in Polynesia in pre-Christian times.
The language has formed special terms for burying alive, stabbing with a splinter
of bamboo, and strangling. In Tahiti some mothers had killed ten children ; the
only gleam of light in the blackness of this crime was the strict adherence to the
law that a child had escaped death if it had lived for even a short interval of time.
Fortunately there were cases enough where natural maternal feeling got the better
of convention. Williams the missionary asserts that every time a mother
murdered a child sprung from a misalliance, she advanced a step in rank, until
she at length reached a point, corresponding to the number of her infanticides, at
which she was permitted to let her children live in future. In not a few districts
of this favoured region necessity was the motive for infanticide, but indolence
still more so. The natives in justifying the practice frequently approximated to
300 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Malthusian principles. The dislike of bringing up more girls than necessary was
an equally prevailing cause. War, the priesthood, fishery, and sailing, were
regarded as forms of activity to which it paid t5 bring up boys, and thus the
disproportion of the sexes was so great that one woman was often wife to four
or five men.
§ 9. RELIGION IN OCEANIA
Universal animallon ; the conception oiAtiia, Mana, Ani, Kalit, and the like — Creation of gods — Hero-worship
— Atua, Oromattca — Gods of the sea, the air, the land, daily occupations — Animation of beasts, plants, and
stones — Cosmogany and mythology ; views of Nature — Beginnings of metaphysics — Legend of Papa and
Kaka — Separation of Heaven and Earth — Rangi- Ru and Maui — Maui as deity and animating principle of
earthquake, fire, and sun — Hawaiian and Maori Mauis — Wakea — Tangaroa the Polynesian Zeus, god of
the sun, the firmament, the horizon — Tii as a variation of time — Tane, god of the sky — Hina, goddess of
the moon — Gods of Olympus and Hades, Hikuleo, Milu, Pele — Hero-gods : Meru, Moso, Oru, Maru—
Priests ; universality of the office — Priests and chiefs — Priest -kings — Consecration of priests — The priests'
functions — Temples and places of sacrifice ; various kinds of sacred places — Graves as places of veneration —
Temples — Lack of genuine idols — Embodiments of gods — The 7>V-^Stone images — Feather-idols — Graves
and funeral customs ; stay of the soul near the body and about the grave — Various forms of interment —
Skull-worship — Sacrifices to the dead — Burying alive.
Universal animation, or the endowment of all things with a soul, is the broad
foundation of all religion among Polynesians and Melanesians alike ; everything,
even to the utensils, had a soul or was capable of having one. We must not,
however, conceive this animation as exclusively of an ennobling kind. The words
spirit and soul indicate generally any expression of life. The squeaking of rats,
the talk of children in their sleep, is called "spirit" in Tahiti. But by the system
of embodying tutelary spirits, souls are consciously imported into objects, and
accordingly, just as a future life in Bolotu is assigned to the souls of men, beasts,
plants, and stones, so it is also to the implements of every kind of handicraft.
Thus this system led to the primitive pantheism which found its most characteristic
stamp in the conception universal in Oceania of the Atua, Akua, or Hotua.
Atua in Polynesia indicates the spiritual in the widest sense, tua apparently
standing here in the sense of the other world : it is God, deified man, spirit, soul,
shadow, ghost. The v/ord is consciously used in a generic sense just as mana is
in Melanesia. Codrington says it is a power or influence which is in a certain
sense supernatural, but expresses itself in any kind of force or superiority which
man may possess. It has no fixed connection with anything, and can be trans-
ferred to almost everything. But spirits, whether disembodied souls or supra-
mundane beings, possess it and can impart it. All the religious rites of the
Melanesians consist in obtaining mana, or deriving benefit from it. The other
world can become practically effective for the living, either through the mediation of
departed souls which wander between heaven and earth, or by the entry, whether
temporary or permanent, of a god into an earthly object. In this way the tutelary
spirits who are extraordinarily important in the practical service of the gods, came
into existence. Their inspiration is desired because they bring to knowledge that
which they have acquired in their intercourse with the gods of Bolotu. If they
do not come willingly it is sought to constrain them by prayers and sacrifices, and
in the last resort, by the incantations of delirious ecstasy. The Polynesian atua
recurs in the Ani or Han of Ponap^, the Kasingl and Kalit of the Pelew, the
RELIGION IN OCEANIA
301
Anut of Kusaie, and the Yaris of Tobi. This spirit worship which is directed
towards creatures regarded as animated, appears in many places to have de-
generated into pure beast worship. Thus in the Mortlocks the bastard mackerel
{caranx) is reverenced as the god of war, and the Kurnai see in the Australian warbler
and the azurine the creators of the sexes. That the animating element is also under-
stood by Kalit appears from the fact that a Kalit is assigned to dead objects ;
Semper was asked by the Pelew Islanders about the Kalit that ticked in his watch.
The Vui of the New Hebrides dwell in a region called Panoi. They stand
in relation with deified ancestors, and are invoked in case of danger. All serious
illnesses, on the other hand, are attributed to magic, or the evil influence of the
Atai or Tatnate, who are the souls of the dead, and as such very distinct from the
Vui. No sooner has the soul left the body than it enters upon its wandering,
which ends in various ways, according to its rank and deserts. At first it does
not go far away, and by a combination
of forces can often be recalled ; to which
end the relations round the death-bed
call out, loud and impressively, the name
of the departing. It is believed that
immediately after death the soul can be
recaptured. In a Gilbert Island dirge,
the dead man's wife calls upon him as
a bird, which flies ever farther to its
home and its adoptive parent.
Wherever the two classes of spirits
— those which had been souls, and the
other which had never been in human
form — were kept distinct, as was the case
in the greater part of Melanesia, the
divine worship of particular personalities
is easily developed from the cult of souls
in general. The Fijians, accordingly,
distinguished between original deities
and deified beings. They prayed to the
images of departed relations, or arranged
with living relations to raise them to
divine honours whenever they should die.
A man when in danger invokes the spirits of his father and grandfather in
full assurance that they hear. The souls of old chiefs are deified after their
death, and invoked by name with sacrifices. A certain gradation is imported
into this troop of spirits and souls by the distinctions of rank which prevailed
among their former earthly tabernacles. For this reason the destiny of the
souls of chiefs and priests which have quitted the earth is materially higher
than that of the lower classes, since even in life the former were inhabited
by higher powers, and these will have a yet more powerful effect when
freed from the bodily husk. Since the souls of chiefs go to the stars, while
others wait upon or within the earth, the stars are designated simply as the
souls of the departed. As these take their way upward in the darkness they are
of course easily seized and dragged about by evil spirits. The origin of divine
Ancestral image (Korvar) from New Guinea — one-fourth
real size. ( British Museum. )
302
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
honours in many cases falls almost within the recollection of living people.
Warriors reverence as a war-god the ghost of some champion whose bones and
hair have the effect of amulets. Great works, such as the stone terraces of Waieo
in the Marquesas, were referred to gods, and men who had produced such things
were raised to the rank of gods. Deification of heroic men was often quite a
matter of notoriety. Tabuarik, the most respected god of the Gilbert Islanders,
was formerly a chief. Now he appears sometimes as Hai, sometimes he lives
above the clouds and thunders, on which occasion the face of his wife may be seen
flashing through the clouds. Tamatoa. the chief . of Raiatea, was reverenced as
a deity even in his lifetime.
Even in the legends of the
great creating gods we find
indications of the notion that
they have been men or can
become so again, and a descent
from the height of deity is an
idea that constantly recurs.
Spirits which never were
souls appear on a higher level.
A Banks Islander of the older
generation explained a vui to
Codrington as follows : " It
lives, thinks, has more intelli-
gence than a man, knows
things which are secret with-
out seeing, is supernaturally
powerful with mana, has no
form to be seen, has no soul,
because itself is like a soul."
They cannot, however, con-
ceive even a ghost as entirely
formless, and thus many assert
that they have seen a ghost
as vapour, or smoke, or some
other indefinite form. Ghosts
of this sort also pass into men ; in Mota nopitu is the name both for a ghost and
for one possessed by a ghost, while in the Banks Islands good spirits of the nature
of elves or gnomes are known as nopitu vui. They give gifts to honest men and
feed the poor ; their presence is betrayed by a tender sound like the song of
children. Places where they like to resort are rongo — that is sacred, as if they
were tabooed. And even though they are themselves invisible, this connection
with something corporeal affords a platform upon which they can be treated
corporeally. All stones, trees, and animals found in such places are equally rongo.
The idea is extended also to such animals as appear frequently in dwellings —
lizards, snakes, and owls ; particular parts of a stream can also, for one reason or
another, be rongo. The ghost is estimated according to the object in which he
dwells, and whoever understands this estimate is counted able to mediate for other
men with the good spirits. He must enter the rongo place alone, and offer sacrifice
A Fiji Islander. (From a photograph in the Godeffroy Album.)
RELIGION IN OCEANIA
303
there ; as he does this he prays and lays the
sacrifice upon a stone which is beUeved to be
connected with the spirit. At one festival the
Fijians used to call the water babies, enticing
them ashore with toys laid on the bank, and
building little banks in order to make it easier
for them to climb up. With a similar inten-
tion in Anaiteum the roads which led from
the sacred groves to the shore might never be
blocked by hedges. But if prayer is made to
a Vui to bring sickness or other evil upon an
enemy, though he can provide the suppliant
with ways and means to do it, he never brings
about the trouble himself, since he is a good
spirit.
With spiritual beings in such superabund-
ance, no striking aspect of Nature remains
unprovided for, and thus thousands of nature-
gods come into existence, who are nothing but
localised spirits or souls. The sea alone is
ruled by some twenty of them (see woodcut on
p. 39). Some of them employ the large blue
shark as their instrument of vengeance. Sharks
are fed on fish and pigs till they acquire the
habit of approaching the shore at certain
times ; and the natives could assure you that
they came at the bidding of the priest.
Another famous sea-god is Hiro, originally a
bold and ingenious native of Raiatea, who
joined the ancient band of gods so recently
that until the fall of paganism his skull was
on view in Opoa.
Chief among the gods of the air, who are
often worshipped in the form of birds, are two
children of Tangaroa, brother and sister. They
dwell not far from the rock that bears the
earth ; and any neglect of their worship they
punish with storms and tempests. They were
invoked to raise hurricanes when a hostile fleet
was fitting out. Even at this day many
islanders believe that in old times evil spirits
had power over the winds, seeing that since
the general conversion to Christianity there
are never such terrible storms as formerly.
The upper regions of the air are also peopled
with higher beings. All the heavenly bodies
were looked upon as gods. When the sun
or the moon is eclipsed, some offended deity
. Sacred drum with carving, from the
Harvey Islands — one-fourth real size
(Christy Collection). 2. Stick calen-
dar of the Ngati Ranki tribe in New
Zealand (British Museum).
304 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
has swallowed it ; and he is induced by abundant gifts to set the orb free
again. They see gods or souls in meteors ; and Lamont mentions the case of a
boy in Penrhyn who \\'ept at seeing a falling star, believing that the soul of an
ancestor had appeared to him. Fairies that inhabit the mountains become visible
in cloudy weather; and cloud is the offspring of Rangi, the sky, and Papatu
Anuku, the wide plain. Giants with fiery eyes live on solitary islands, like the
desert volcanic island Manua near Raiatea. In Hawaii are haunted places where
ghosts go in procession to the sound of the pipe, and whoever hears them dies.
Prognostications surround the whole of life with a dense network of inevitable con-
sequences, and superstition has little trouble in discovering the most probable
connection between cause and effect. Thus the subjection of Tahiti to a French
Protectorate was foretold by a crack in the post supporting the palace gate.
Lastly, spiritual beings preside over individual occupations. Special gods
send the migratory fish inshore at stated times ; special gods are invoked by
fishermen when they are making nets, going on board, or working at sea. So,
too, agriculturists, carpenters, house and boat builders, have patterns peculiar to
their craft. Even games are under the tutelage of five or six gods ; and not less,
particular crimes and transgressions. The chiefs think it no shame to invoke
Hiro, as protector of robbers, on their privy raids, which turn out most prosper-
ously on the 17th, 1 8th, and 19th nights of the month. But when a pig is stolen,
he often is put off with a piece of the tail, offered with the words : " Here is a bit
of the pig ; say nothing about it, good Hiro."
The tendency to multiply parallel conceptions makes the number of the gods
increase. Thus many members of the heavenly crowd suggest that they are the
creations of the hieroglyphic languages of the priests, meeting as this does the
needs of a foreboding spiritually-minded imagination. In this fashion legendary
figures multiply ; and are gradually impersonified as brothers and sisters, till
they represent whole families.
It is difficult to separate the guardian spirits of individuals from those of the
tribe ; for both are treated alike, and are often essentially the same. The totem
system comes in here. " One Samoan saw his god in the eel, another in the shark,
another in the turtle, another in the dog, another in the owl, another in the lizard,
and so on through every class of sea-fishes, birds, quadrupeds, and every kind of
living thing, including even several mollusks. A man would eat freely of what
was regarded as the incarnation of the god of another man, but the incarnation
of his own god he would consider it death to injure or to eat ; for the god v/as
supposed to avenge the guilt by taking up his abode in that person's body, and
causing to generate there the very thing which he had eaten, until it produced
death." 1
Beside the function of acting as the outward shell of guardian spirits, special duties
were allotted, in the history of the gods and of their dealing with men, to animated
objects. We hear much of the tree of life, by whose topmost branches the gods
left heaven when descending to earth. In Tonga, the Toa-\x&^ grew up to heaven
for that purpose. The talking tree is found near the habitation of Ikuleo, the lord
of heaven ; and if he demands the death of a man, a canoe is sent to fetch him.
This tree takes the souls ; and when men grew as shoots from the world-tree, they
received their souls from the height of heaven. Legend reduced the heavenly
[' Turner's Samoa. ]
RELIGION IN OCEANIA
305
growth to a tree from which a man looked into heaven, as in Pelew ; or, as in the
Banks Islands, made it grow till the divine being, Quat, climbed up it to escape
his pursuers. Souls of gods, too, are confined in trees. Thus Maui learned from
his uncle Inaporari, how to recognise in the lower world, by knocking on them,
the noro-trees in which
the lives of his brethren
and himself were im-
prisoned. Among the
Maoris trees represent
the god Tane, whose
children are the birds
of land and sea. In
Tahiti, the ao -tree is
planted near temples,
since the god lives in
it. From the jagged
splinters of the az(o-
tree, Tangaroa, the self-
begotten, created the
inferior gods before he
produced men. In
Melanesia, the Fijians
venerate trees by throw-
ing leaves on the spot
where the last evening
shadow lies. Besides
the vesi-tree, the wood
of which is good for
canoes, the fig-tree with
its spreading roots, and
any coco-palm which
forks, are regarded as
seats for the gods, and
so sacred. The good
little soul-deities of the
Veli sing from hollow
trees. ^VeaponS are Magic dolls made of human bone, votive bunches of hair, and tortoise skull,
. , . from a temple in the Admiralty Islands — one-fifth real size. (Christy
rubbed with certain Collection.)
leaves to ensure suc-
cess ; but in Vate, leaves are buried near a house in order to cast a shade
over it and cause illness. In the New Hebrides the pandanus receives special
reverence. At sacred dances the neophytes appear shrouded in bunches
of pandanus, and crowned with garlands of the same. In Micronesia, too,
sacred trees are reverenced ; for example, in Bygor, coco-palms standing in
enclosures, because the Am descend on to their tops. In Pelew, the Ka/ii
who created the names of the chiefs, and dwelt originally within the earth,
is embodied in great forest trees. A bush that grows before the king's house
in Korror passes for the last scion of a plant brought from a submerged spirit
X
3o6
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
land ; and at Tapituea in the Gilberts, New Year's sacrifices are offered under
an old Mamam-tree.
Birds appear in the Mani-legend as bearers and guardians of fire ; and also
in a legend of the creation of man. Men were formed by the snipe or the lark,
who was sent to earth by its fkther Tangaroa, during the process of scratching |
up worms. A Samoan legend makes the souls of men in bird shape be brought
down by the same birds. The seeds of useful plants are brought to earth
moon. The New Zealander regarded
the cockatoo as sacred ; while it was
a bad omen if the iarata -hird flew
over a column of warriors on the
march. The owl caused absolute
terror. Various other birds were also
sacred in Polynesia as the bringers of fire
and souls ; and in Tahiti the heron and
the otaiare-hird. Red feathers symbol-
ised the fire which the Creator places in
all living beings. One who knows Fiji,
says: " If you would sketch an appro-
priate emblem of the old Fijian religion,
you must select a fine pandanus, beneath
which is sleeping coiled up a^ mighty
snake, while hard by a cock with fine
feathers is crowing to wake the sleeper."
This bird, the harbinger of day, the
herald of sunlight, the bird of the sun-
god, is the same for destroying which
the sons of Ndengeh aroused the wrath
of the fathers of the gods to such a
pitch that he sent a great deluge on
the earth. Great white shells adorned
his legs, and so numerous were his
beautiful feathers, that by plucking one
wing only you could cover the whole
mountain-top as with a cloud. In the rest of Melanesia, next to the warm
lizard, the buceros, hornbill or rhinoceros bird, is the most frequent subject of
sculpture. In the Hamburg Museum is a carving, in which he is taking a child
from its mother's body with his ripping beak.
Among animals, the pig is the most distinguished in fable. Giants from Tahiti
embarked in rafts to fight the man-eating pig in Eiva ; or Hiro, born of the sun,
slew it. Pigs were the most costly victims for sacrifice, and only the priests might
enter their styes. In Nukahiva a stone image of a pig's head was found in
company with human bones. Besides these, we find fabulous animals. The
subject, at once oceanic and amphibious, of an animal living on the land and
with a serpent or eel-shaped extremity reaching to the sea, occurs in Fiji and
elsewhere in Melanesia, in the form of tailed gods, as in the souls of the chiefs
lying in prayer before Siuleo.
Here, as in Australia, lizards are involved in a special cycle of legends, bringing
Ancestral images from Easter Island — one-tenth real size.
(Munich Museum.)
RELIGION IN OCEANIA 307
them into close connection with the divine figure which strikes its roots deeply,
the god of earthquake. In Fiji he Hved in a cave, and when he was driven thence
by incantations the giant Hzard which he kept in a cage as a plaything remained
behind till it was killed by the chief Tara. With it the legend connected an
earthwork built in the form of a great lizard, on the river Waitio. On a campaign
a green lizard is counted a bad omen. The Atuas like to appear in the form of
lizards. Lizards creep through the openings of the body and bring illness ; and
so among the Maoris the lizard god Mokotiti causes headache. Tare was also
spoken of as dwelling in a lizard. Among the Melanesians, snakes were, of all
animals, the most revered, and some places in Fiji were actually famous for snake
worship. On the other hand, the Hattams of New Guinea preferred the snake to
all other animals for food. Among the temple idols of the Papuas in Waigu,
the crocodile also is found. Idols, shark below and man above, were set up on
houses in the Solomon Islands, to avert evil influences. Skulls of those valuable
food animals, the turtles, were kept in the temples. From Easter Island we have
fish-headed idols, as shown on p. 50 ; and in Florida large eels are favourite
places of residence for the souls of the dead.
Lastly, we must refer to the widely-spread cult of stones. In Melanesia,
hardly any sacred place is without its holy stone. The splintered and cloven
rocks of the coast gave rise to legends of all sorts, which in many cases sound
like an echo of those which we know in the west. Rocky wastes are shown as
the battlefields of contending gods, or the places where, overtaken by daylight
in the task of creating islands, they were obliged to leave the materials lying
about. Gods were made the constructors of the great stone figures on Easter
Island. Herewith, in islands where stone idols abound, legends were connected ;
as in Tokelau, where the first man sprang from stone, and manufactured a woman
out of sand, inserting a rib ; or as' in Tonga Levu, where a " dolmen " built by
Tangaroa indicates the direction in which the gods travelled to Vavau and
Hapai. In the Gilberts, sacrifices are offered on one stone in a stone circle, this
being wreathed, with the innermost leaf of a palm. Fishermen worship upright
stones, and idols may be made only of a particular sort of rock. "Rain-stones" are
put in the fire when it rains too much, but wetted in time of drought. Some saw
in stones the petrified remains of fish left behind by the great flood. Stone idols,
wrapped with cloth, are venerated in Micronesia, many of them being brought
from a distance. In a stone of this kind dwells Tuitokelau, who is revered as a
god. In Mota, little stones are a remedy for evil of every kind. Circumcision
may, in New Guinea, be performed only with freshly-manufactured stone knives ;
though a bamboo splinter is allowed in cases of necessity. In the Pelews,
Kubary found an idol of black volcanic rock. Small ancestor-images of stone
were placed by the fishermen on their nets for luck. In Fiji, cliffs are the birth-
place of the good Ndengeh ; in Pelew, the last remains of submerged spirit-
islands, whence the giant forefathers of the present population, the Kalits, came
into the land. Magic treasures often lie under them ; or, as below a reef in
Korror, the kossol-xoo'i, which, laid on the prow of a canoe, of itself guides the
voyage to its end.
Reverence is also paid to the sea ; everything connected with it — as naviga-
tion or shipbuilding — is highly esteemed. In Nukuor the priest strikes eight
blows with a consecrated axe on the tree from which a canoe is to be built, and
3o8 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
it may not be felled or worked except in the three months elapsing after the
death of the spiritual chief of the tribe. The people of Ponape hold a peculiar
feast at which all boats built in the previous year are dedicated to the gods.
The paddle that marks a grave represents the noblest activity of the man, as the
spindle that of the woman ; and not corpses only, but persons dangerously ill or
decrepit from age, are exposed in boats. In Mortlock the highest honour is paid
to the god of the sea, by the conveyance to him of those who have fallen in
battle, while those who have died naturally are buried in the ground.
Under the breath of the universal tendency to animism which penetrated
through mankind and Nature, gods and idols sprang up in crowds, and bore the
Oceanian mind into a labyrinth of supra-terrestrial and sub-terrestrial conceptions.
A racial feature appears in this luxuriant formative impulse. It is not by chance
that Polynesia and Madagascar have a great extent of theogony in common, in
the form of an extremely polytheistic mythology in one region, of exuberant
fetishism in the other. And even if but a small fraction of these spirits soared to
the heights of divine honours, while the great mass remained attached to the soil,
yet the total was large. The list made by the missionaries in Raiatea contains
nearly a hundred names of gods. Whether certain ones rose out of the mass
depended on how the tribe lived. In a more distinct order, among the world of
gods, we see a reflection of the stability of tradition. Thus in general more gods
are found in the east among the Polynesians, more spirits and ghosts among the
Melanesians and Micronesians to the west. Just when Christianity reached
Polynesia, they were in the thick of a brisk process of god-manufacture ; new
shoots, new blooms, sent forth by their excited fancy, found a more secure footing,
partly in the more firmly crystallised cosmogonic legends, partly in a system of
hierarchies and relationships, which naively spiritualised conditions prevailing on
earth. Where the tendency to discuss genealogical traditions on fine evenings
in places of public resort prevailed, as in New Zealand, time brought about
organised methods of recording (see woodcut on p. 303). In such cases theology
gains a firmer consistency than in districts where life is lax, and traditions
and the priesthood have no organs.
The highest gods were bound together by a common origin from Chaos or
Po, anterior to all existence ; these were called the offspring of Night. Then
demigods and heroes, as well as even men of high birth, made their way into
the circle, with the result of obscuring Polynesian mythology. These late-promoted
were often just the most considered in the realm of gods, even though they might
be locally limited. On the other hand, to one only belongs, in the highest measure,
a profounder connection with cosmogony ; this is Tangaroa, who is revered even
in remoter islands, as Taaroa and Kanaloa. A Raiatean legend gives a grand
picture of his all-pervading power ; how at first, concealed in an egg-shaped shell,
he hovered around in the dark space of air, until weary of the monotonous move-
ment, he stretched forth his hands and rose upright, and all became light around
him. He looked down to the sand on the sea-shore, and said : " Come up hither."
The sand replied : " I cannot fly to thee in the sky." Then he said to the rocks :
" Come up hither to me." They answered : " We are rooted in the ground, and
cannot leap on high to thee." So the god came down to them, flung off his
shell, and added it to the mass of the earth, which became greater thereby.
From the sherds of the shell were made the islands. Then he formed men out
RELIGION IN OCEANIA 309
of his back, and turned himself into a boat. As he rowed in the storm, space
was filled with his blood, which gave its colour to the sea, and, spreading from the
sea to the air, made the morning and evening glows. At last his skeleton, as it
lay on the ground with the backbone uppermost, became an abode for all gods,
and at the same time the model for the temple ; and Tangaroa became the sky.
In other traditions he appears as the Polynesian Neptune ; and he was also
worshipped as the guardian of those who went to sea in dug-out canoes.
Lastly, as the giver of the model for the temple, he was the patron of artists.
It is indeed obvious enough for a maritime people to make the god of the sea
the father and the first of the gods. While it is under his supreme sway that
creation develops from plants through reptiles to men, these last were finished
by the god Naio, and brought nearer to the gods themselves. This Naio, who
arranges the revolution of the sun and the fixity of the earth, leads ultimately
to the Maui of New Zealand. By this addition of subsidiary or assistant gods,
Tangaroa's position as time went on got obliterated. He was called the Un-
created, the Survivor from the age of Night, and hymned as follows : —
Taaroa all around us.
Taaroa like the seed-ground,
Taaroa, rocks' foundation,
Taaroa, like the sea-sand,
Taaroa, widest spreading,
Taaroa, light forth-breaking,
Taaroa rules within us.
Taaroa down beneath us,
Taaroa, lord of wisdom.
The places where he was publicly worshipped were but few. With his wife, by
whom he had a son and a daughter, who in their turn had two sons, he is the
first to emerge from Chaos ; and embracing the rocky soil he begat land and
sea. But when the forerunners of the day — the dark-blue and light-blue sky —
came to him, begging a soul for the earth, he bade his son Raitubu to carry out
his will. He, by merely looking at heaven and earth, produced all that is in
earth, sky, and sea.
In Tangaroa's gigantic creative force, which allows good and evil to proceed
from it indiscriminately, the root of his transformation to an evil principle may
already be seen. In Tonga he eclipses the sun, and meets us in Hawaii as the
evil spirit among the four chief deities. In Fiji, tagaloa means the odour of a
corpse.
In connection with Tangaroa another divine figure represents the man -forming
side of his creation ; many traditions record Tii as the father of the human race,
with his wife as the mother of mankind. Sprung from the alliance of a descendant
of Tangaroa's with the sand of the shore, he himself formed his own wife, and
their children were the patriarchs of the human race. In Opoa, two Tiis — one of
the land, one of the sea — are said to have taken human bodies, and to have peopled
the islands, hitherto inhabited by gods only. But some held that Tii and Tangaroa
were one and the same being, like the sun by day and by night. Some again
asserted of each alike that he was the first man who, living on after his death,
was called by the name ; whence also the spirits of the departed had received
this appellation. This legend looks like an extension of the notion, which is
spread all over Polynesia, of Tangaroa the creator ; he and his wife were made
to have inhabited and peopled all the islands in succession. Tii is in more ways
a benefactor of the human race, by raising the heaven above the earth, by
mutilating the earthquake god, by bringing fire, and creating man. Thereby he
is closely linked with Maui ; and consistently with this we meet him in the
Society Isles as god of light, sprung from the sun and moon.
3IO
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Thus did mythology develop from cosmogony, and here too it owes its
existence mainly to a dim impulse towards knowledge. The impulse towards
an arrangement of the conceptions of the next world has contributed something
to it. Lords of heaven and hell were needed. Thus the eternal mirror of
anthropomorphic impulse casts upon the deep shining sky, and upon the
wide horizon of its island home, magnified and distorted
human figures as bearers of the creative and destructive
forces of nature. And they who there act and suffer
gigantically are genuine Polynesians all the while. Efforts
after dominion and power, jealous claims to honour and
possession, inexorable vengeance for neglect, are common
to all ; not one is adorned with moral pre-eminence,
surpassing wisdom, or spontaneous goodness ; crimes of
every sort find example and encouragement in the spirit-
world. Thus even the highest beings are drawn down to
earth by the polytheism which makes them in the likeness
of men. Only in the beginnings of creation is the impulse
to express in an image some inkling of the origin and inter-
dependence of beings preserved. Creation begins in pro-
found metaphysical depths. Here mythology goes near to
bring forth science. Poetry and legend struggle to explain
the riddle of the world, but in vain. Yet it is a brilliant
testimony to the intellectual ability of the Polynesians; If
their development in other domains had kept pace with it,
they would have been a race of high distinction ; but at
bottom the limitations of a life confined to the islands
recur everywhere within their wide sea-horizon. The very
beginning of cosmogony followed the course of natural
development : the central point of the world came into
existence by land being cast up from the primeval bottom,
and later -discovered islands were fished up by heroes.
Moreover, the whole is permeated by the view that the
primitive forces of Nature, from which, personified as gods,
the world of phenomena has come forth, are always striving,
in pursuance of a process of development which is originally
included in them, to swallow it up again.
Although the existence of the gods had a beginning,
Idol from New Zealand it knows no end : SO they hold in Tonga. Earth, heaven,
all things, are of themselves divine ; and therefore Po,
the Night, is placed at the beginning. Po was in labour
for ten nights, and on the tenth appeared Kaka, father of Rangi and Papa, from
whom sprang Tane, with his eight brothers. The nights had special names, to
which the priests gave a profound interpretation. Similarly, among the Maoris,
creation commences with the night. After untold periods desire awakes, then
longing, then feeling. Thought follows upon the first pulse of life, or the first
breath drawn ; and upon thought, mental activity. Then springs up the wish,
directed to the sacred mystery or great riddle of life. Later, from the material
prccreative power of love is developed the clinging to existence, permeated by a
— one - half real size.
(Christy Collection.)
RELIGION IN OCEANIA 3"
joyous sense of pleasure. Lastly, Atea, the universe, floats in space, divided by
the difference of sex into Rangi and Papa, Heaven and Earth ; and individual
creations now begin. Bastian asks in reference to this towering structure of
thought : " Did some disguised Anaximander or Pythagoras wander this way ? "
In every phrase, as we may say, are found resemblances with Asiatic or American
cosmogonies. There is no need to refer to the Egyptian Ru and Buto, sun and
night ; every cosmogonic idea of the Oceanians has relatives east and west of the
Ocean.
Papa, the Earth, and Rangi, the sky, lay in close contact with each other.
From the attempts of poetry to explain their separation, and the consequent
vaulting of heaven, sprang the whole legend of the gods, taking one form in
Tahiti, another in Tonga, yet another in Samoa. A more localised variation
brings us from Ru-Rongo, the god of heaven, to Tangaroa. Kaka, brother to
Papa, the earth, represents the sky, or the light, in contrast to her. In Hawaii
he appears as Wakea, and Papa's husband, who, in conjunction with her gives
birth to many generations of gods, notably the series of the Mauis. Diving into
the depths of the sea, he united himself with the sea-goddess ; and after he had
returned to land, the Moa-hirds begotten of this union lighted on his shoulders.
Metaphysical interpretations of what preceded the creation of earth are only
conceivable among Polynesians of a large community, where a regular priestly
order rendered a strict tradition possible — as in Hawaii, the Society Islands, or
New Zealand. Where the lore was handed on only by the mixed society of the
secret leagues, the history of creation remains wholly in the region of fable or
legend. No doubt the outlines show faintly through, and some names recur ; but
in details the conception has changed. It is with an interest born of old
acquaintance that we find carpenters and artists in Mortlock worshipping the
zenith under the name Lageilang as their most special patron-god ; by his nature
he must be Rangi. Still more familiar, as we go east, is the notion of the sky
as found in the Gilberts, according to which it was a spherical shell lying close
to the earth, which a hero helped the gods to push higher. His sister, in the
form of a cuttle-fish, supported him. Brother and sister appear otherwise, in the
process of creation, as representing the male and female principles — as in the
Mariannes, the Carolines, Pelews, and elsewhere.
The character of the Melanesian variations on Polynesian legends of the gods
is that of a jocose, almost anecdotic lowering of them to humbler spheres. What
is myth in Polynesia here becomes fairy-tale, losing thereby in grandeur, but
gaining in human affability. The primitive inhabitants of the islands, who
correspond to the Kalits of Micronesia, are no giants, but helpful gnomes ; and
their chief, Marawa, still shows treasures hidden in clefts of the rocks to poor
people who confide in him. Sportive turns are in accordance with the cheerful
nature of these curly-haired folk. In the New Hebrides they say of the creator,
that he first made men go on all fours, and pigs upright. But this annoyed the
birds and reptiles, and they called a meeting, at which the lizard was foremost in
demanding a change, while the wagtail strongly opposed. The lizard forced his
way through, crawled up a coco-palm, and jumped down on the back of a pig,
making it drop on to its fore-legs. Since then pigs go on all fours, men upright.
But the value of these traditions is quite misunderstood, if, as for obvious reasons
the missionaries are apt to do, we see in these spirits, who at bottom are
312
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
cosmogonic figures, only the heroes of fairy tales. The Polynesian legend of the
fishing up of the land from the depths of the sea takes the following form in Yap ;
Mathikethik went out fishing with his two elder brothers. First, he hooked up
crops of all sorts, and taro ; then the island of Fais. His hook is kept by the
priests ; and since, if it were destroyed, Fais also would disappear, the inhabitants
Tahitian idols, carved in wood — one-tentli real size. (London iVIissionary Society's Collection.)
of that island are in constant subjection to the menaces of the Yap chiefs. Thus
can a great piece of cosmogonic imagery sink to the level of trick and superstition.
The connection of creative activity with sun and moon, still so clear in
Polynesia, has become in Micronesia quite legendary. In Pelew they relate how
a man and his wife, tired of staying in that island, went to the stone in Eymelijk
whence they sprung, and called on the moon. It approached, and they climbed
on to a serpent's neck, and so reached the moon, where they may now be seen.
Other sun and moon notions take a similarly odd form. When the moon wanes,
sorcerers are eating it in dough. The sun shines at night in another country.
Once upon a time four men in Pelew, seeing the sun setting, leaped hastily into
RELIGION IN OCEANIA 3'3
a canoe. They went on till they got to the denges-iree., and the sun asked what
they wanted. The -people said, to visit him ; and he told them to let their canoe
drift, and plunge down after him. The islanders did so, and found themselves
in a strange country, in a well-built house, where the sun entertained them. The
viands served in the dishes were tiny in size, but got no smaller with eating. At
length the people prepared to depart ; but as their canoe had floated away, the
sun took a thick bamboo-cane, an article hitherto unknown in Pelew, and shut
them in it. He bade the bamboo float to Ngarginkl ; the men arrived there
safely, and became the four highest chiefs. But the bamboo floated away to
Ngareko-basango, where there are thickets of bamboo to this day, but none on
Peleliu. In remembrance of their deed, however, the people of Ngarginkl are
allowed to fetch bamboos from thence.
The birth of the creator from stone or from the earth is the starting-point of
Fijian and New Hebridean cosmogony. Ndengeh's priests point out a rock,
which rises from a river at the foot of the hill which he inhabits, and say it is his
father. The interpretation is to be found in the connection between father
Heaven and mother Earth. Thus among the Banks Islanders the supreme god,
Qat, emerges from a stone, which was his mother ; and then with the help of his
companion, Marawa, creates the rest of the world. Marawa is invoked with Qat
in all emergencies, and may easily be recognised as the legendary Maui of New
Zealand and Hawaii. Qat was doomed to be slain, but succeeded in climbing a
nutmeg-tree. He had hardly reached the top when, by the arts of his hostile
brothers, the tree grew higher and higher, and became of such circumference that
Qat could not have got down again, had not Marawa, seeing his friend's difficulty,
blown to earth a thread, or a hair from his head. Here we have the sun ; and
the tree of heaven is the same as that by way of whose top, in another story,
the whole group of Tongaros saved themselves from a hostile spirit.^
Islands where volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are common must be just
the places for myths to weave themselves in abundance about the force of the
hidden fire. To this a life-generating effect was ascribed in the Marquesas ; and
corresponding veneration was paid to Maui as creator of the world. After
Nukahiva was raised up from the nether world by divine force, a woman gave
birth to the sea as well as to the germs of beasts and plants ; while men and
fish, who were enclosed in caverns, were ejected by a volcanic explosion. The
fusion of fire below and above the earth into a single god of earthquake, fire, and
sun, is not far off, when the theogonic position is so lofty ; the ever-varying and
mobile nature of fire, of heat, opens an immeasurable field to fancy. Maui, the
Hawaiian Prometheus, who fetches fire from the sun, is in Samoa the earthquake-
god as well ; in Raiatea, the creator of the sun ; in the Marquesas, of everything
that has life. So, too, a reason for his lofty position is offered by the separation
which the Maoris make between Ru, their god of earthquakes, and volcanic fire,
and the fire-god, Manika, who dwells in all living things. Here Maui is the
fire-bringer and the animator. Around him is spun a network of legends of
Promethean and Titanic character. The word maui means " broken," " beaten " ;
when Maui fetched the fire, one of his arms was struck or twisted off by the
earthquake-god, Tati. This occurs in the most various versions. His brothers,
multiplied Mauis, appeared in a twofold form, as demigods and inhabitants of
' [The Tongaros are Qat's brothers. Marawa is occasionally a spider.]
314 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
earth. But the fire-bringing was Maui's performance, of which legend specially
loved to treat. After he had obtained the fire by means of red-feathered birds,
he completed his Promethean career by overcoming his father Kane, whom evil
spirits had set at enmity with him, and Kane's brother, Kanaloa, in a riddle-
guessing contest, attacking them, and vanquishing a whole host of spirits besides.
Kane and Kanaloa fled from the temple and went aloft ; but Maui, as he was
about to follow, suddenly felt himself struck in the breast by a missile. There-
upon he lost all his supernatural power, and soon after died of sickness like a
mortal man. What a sheaf of universally current thoughts and images have we
here ! In the Society Islands Maui is brought otherwise into connection with
the sun. He is there made to be the priest, who, wishing to finish divine service,
caught the hurrying sun by its rays. In Hawaii, when the sun had taken refuge
in Tahiti, he brought it back, and cut off one of its legs to make it move slower
and dry his mother's washing. Lastly, we even find him as a god akin to
Proserpine, for whose return from the underworld prayers were offered every year
at the harvest-festival in Nukahiva.
Fire was everywhere brought to earth against the wish of the gods. In Ulea
a god who has been pushed out of heaven obtains it by threats from an old
woman, Mafuike, and brings it to Fakaafo, where till then the food had been
eaten raw. Since then fire, as being sacred to the god of day, may only be
lighted at night for fishing purposes or at confinements. In Tokelau and Pelew
the legends commemorate the making of fire by rubbing two pieces of wood.
To this series of great Polynesian gods belongs Tane or Kane, who stands
in the closest relationship with Kongo, Rangi, or Ru, the heaven, or bearer of
heaven. After earth and heaven were sundered, Tane adorned the heaven with
stars, and set up the deformed among his children on earth as trees. He appears
thus as assistant and finisher in the work of creation. Another legend represents
him as the maker of the first man, or of the beings who preceded. A yet more
essential function in the Maori legend is that in fulfilment of which he discharges
the important duty of separating his parents, Rangi (heaven) and Papa (earth),
and raising the former aloft. When after this he went up to heaven to seek a
wife, he found that there was only one woman there, and his father Rangi advised
him to go back to his mother. From her hip he formed his wife Hine, on whom
he begat a daughter. Recognising her father in Tane, this daughter fled, ashamed,
to his brother, and in her anger with Tane transformed herself into the Titaness
Hineanitepo (night), while Tane remained on earth. While Tane was searching
everywhere for his daughter, he found his brother Rehua, the all-quickening fire,
in the tenth or highest heaven. This visit to the fire seems to connect Tane
with the Promethean Titan Maui, especially as he also sought the water of life
as a protection against Maru, and is reckoned the father of birds ; two features
which he has in common also with Tangaroa. In Tahiti, Rehua was a real star-
god, the star of the New Year, who produced the Twins as well as the Pleiads,
and is considered lord of the year. The morning star, the guide of shipmen, is
the son of Heaven, while the evening star was designated as the son of the Sun,
falling stars as Atuas, and the Twins as sons of men, who in their fear of being
separated made their escape to heaven.
Closely bound up with their tangled structure of mythologic notions, yet
forming a world of themselves, are the Polynesian conceptions of a hereafter ; a
RELIGION IN OCEANIA 315
somewhat ennobled reflection of the life on earth, and yet much nearer to the
present world than to that of the gods. It is only the lord of the underworld
who comes into the same line of reverence with them. He is Ikuleo, or Hikuleo,
Maui's younger brother, lord of Bolotu, the nobles' heaven, and god and guide of
their souls. Near his palace bubbles up the fountain of the water of life, which
awakes the souls of departed princes to renewed youth, quickens the dead, heals
the sick. Or he dwells in a cave on Bolotu, unable to go further from it than the
length of his own tail, which has grown into the ground. Here he carouses with
his wives and children, compelling the souls of chiefs and Matabulus to wait on
him. A thirst after souls is one of his chief characteristics, but an emigration
led by Tangaroa's sons carried off some of his subjects, and he endeavoured
accordingly, by summoning the ghosts of chiefs, to attract them back from Tonga.
He had a special fancy for the first-born of the noblest families ; and once such
a mortality took place among these that Hikuleo had to be chained up in the
earth by Maui, and in heaven by Tangaroa. He appears in Samoa, as Siuleo,
at the head of the fighting men, whom he leads to victory if he is disposed to
accept their sacrifices favourably. In Hawaii we know him as Milu and Wakea,
two aspects of the same ideal. From the legends told here of him and his
attendant shades we may form a sort of mosaic picture of the Polynesian Hades
and Paradise. Milu's kingdom in the lower world will last for ever, and has
existed from the beginning ; but persons apparently dead have brought back
intelligence of it, as the Hawaiian legend related on p. 41. It is level and fertile,
also fairly light ; everything grows of itself there. In Milu's palace court are
facilities for enjoyment of every kind. The best-looking women who arrive are
selected by Milu for himself, and are then tabooed to the other Akuas. Another
ruler of the underworld is Wakea ; his kingdom was founded later than Milu's.
Each kingdom is tabooed, and no one can go from one to the other. Before Wakea
became a god, he was a sovereign on earth; Milu was also a man, but not so
good. Down below Wakea rules over the higher souls, Milu over the lower.
Departed souls are borne away in the direction of the setting sun, to Kane's
islands. There they either leap from a rock into the sea, or disappear through
a hole in the ground. A place in Oahu, near the West Cape, has been said to
be the spot ; probably with a reminiscence of the similarly situated sacred spot
in Pelew. But the souls do not come at once into the next world ; they wander
some time on the frontier, and if they are only apparently dead can return to
the upper world. For this reason the recently departed soul is an object of fear,
since its semi-corporeal apparition is enough to frighten one into madness. In
Milu's kingdom the souls amuse themselves with noisy games ; in Wakea's a
solemn peace reigns. The place where the wicked are tormented, which is
represented as the night of the everlasting death, and as a dark deep place at
the back of the heaven where the stars are hung, may well have been imported
from some foreign school of thought.
In Hawaii, legends of a fire-goddess, Pele, belonging to the nether world,
were called forth by the mighty scale of the volcanic phenomena, and grew into
a cycle of myths in harmony with the Hades-legends. Superficial observers,
regarding her as the most powerful of all the gods, ascribed to her not only the
volcanic fire, but also the Hawaiian deluge. When Pele started upon her journey
to Hawaii, which in those days was a monstrous desert waste, with the same
3i6 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
mountains as now, but with no fresh water, even no sea, her parents gave her
the sea to carry her boat. While she was sailing to Hawaii, the flood rose till
only the highest mountain-tops were visible ; but the sea shortly went down again
till it reached its present level. Pele, with her terrible brethren, the lord of
steam, the lightning, the thunderer, the fire-spitter, the boat-smasher with fiery
eyes, the sky-splitter (a sister), and the rest, retired to the mountains. In the
roar of the lava-waves the Kanaka hears their voices. Pele often changed her
quarters ; driven out by the sea-god Moana, she now dwells in Kilauea, the only
volcano of the group that is at present active. Even after the conversion of the
islanders to Christianity the crater of Kilauea long remained under strict taboo.
Even in the most recent times strangers have noticed their native guides, with
bared heads, throwing into the lake of fire little offerings like glass beads, coral,
shells, etc., with the salutation AloJia Pele ! while the hair-like threads of glass,
" Pele's hair," which are found only in the crater of Kilauea, may serve as a
memento of the once mighty goddess.
The fancy of the Melanesians did not soar to such grand achievements in the
decoration of their Elysian fields ; but it furnished the road thither with many
and various obstacles. The Fijian name Mbulu points to the Tongan Bolotu ;
and even the Hawaiian ball-game is reproduced in New Caledonia as a game
played with oranges by the souls at the bottom of the sea. The first thing on
the road to Hades is a city through all the houses of which the souls roam, for
which reason the doors all open the same way. Then they have to pass in front
of a giant, who tries to get them all with his great stone axe. Those who are
wounded have to haunt the mountains as ghosts for ever ; those who escape the
giant, after being acquitted by Ndengei, get permission to enjoy the odour of the
human sacrifices. Souls of unmarried men come off worst. Nangga-Nangga lies
in wait for them, and as soon as he has caught them, heaves them up in both
hands and throws them down upon a rock, where they are broken in two. For
this cause it was usual among the tribes in Fiji to strangle widows, because the
god regards male ghosts, who come without women, as bachelors. If the wife
is the first to die, the husband cuts off" his beard, and lays it under the left armpit
of the corpse as proof of his existence. The fighter who guards the entrance to
the next world is met with elsewhere in Melanesia. In the Hades of the Vate
Islanders Salatau tries to hit those who enter on the head with a club. No
doubt it is the same spirit who in Fiji, under the name of Samujal or Suma, and
Ravujalo, lies in wait for souls to eat them with his brothers. The souls of
common people succumb, those of nobles get to Mbulu. These go to the upper
part of a mountain, and find at the top of a precipice a father and a son with a
paddle in their hands. If they question them, they are thrown over, and have to reach
the next world by swimming. Why the paddle, if the souls have to swim after all ?
The meaning of the ferryman of souls has been forgotten ; though it is not so
in Fiji, where the souls' places of embarkation lie to the north-west, and where
it is believed that the rustle of the west wind can be heard all the way from
Galongalo, the place of the swimming. After the death of their king the three
eldest men of the tribe go with cloths in their hands to the bank of the river to
escort the soul. There they call aloud for the ferryman, and wait till they see
an extra large wave roll in upon the shore, the token of the invisible canoe.
Immediately they turn away their faces, and cry : " Go on board, lord." Then
RELIGION IN OCEANIA 31?
they hasten thence with all speed, for no living eye may look on the embarkation.
The corpse is buried in the usual way.
Souls which are excluded from the next world, either perish or come back
to wander restlessly about the earth, like those who were wounded in the fight
mentioned above. The same fate awaits those who cannot hit the tree of
Takivelajawa with the whale-tooth that is buried with them for the purpose, and
according to Fijian legend, untattooed women also, and avaricious people. This
dangerous way of souls is moreover divided into stations, at each of which the
soul dies once again. In the belief of the Solomon Islanders, the avaricious, mur-
derers, and other sinners undergo a purification by being turned into ugly rep-
tiles, snakes, toads, and the like. Similar traces of dim notions about future
rewards and punishments are to be found everywhere. But it was certainly no
original conception of the Fijians that souls have to come before Ndengei's
judgment seat.
Usually souls go with the sun into the ocean, to reach the next world at his
rising on the following day. This is why the promontories whence they venture
their leap into the darkness, lie on the west of the islands.
Where two souls were distinguished in every man and every object, as was
the case among the Fijians, namely the shadow and the reflection, it is the dark
one only that goes to the lower world, while that which is compared to a reflec-
tion remains about the grave ; in this way the return of the dead in dreams is
explained. Another conception sets a limit to the soul even in the next world,
since it makes annihilation follow upon the highest stage of the life in Mbulu.
But this annihilation is personified, and in another tradition assumes the character
of the chief of the souls in Mbulu, who is thus probably conceived as a soul-eating
god. Others, however, make the souls remain in their place until the earth has
been destroyed by fire and renewed.
The Melanesian doctrine of ghosts and gods is in its main features very like
the Polynesian. It is not too much to say that the foundation of Melanesian
mythology is woven of Polynesian threads ; only peculiar features are woven in,
and often rest upon a weakening-down of threads and colours already in existence.
Considering the great variety of gods in the oceanic regions, little importance
can be assigned to the pre-eminence of any one. Name and dignity of the
supreme god change from one island to another. It is only in the tales of the
creation and of the nether world that more stability is to be observed. In Fiji
the recognised chief of all gods and men is Dengeh, Tengei, or Ndengei. He is
said to have at first moved about freely, but then in the form of a snake to have
grown into the earth with his ringed tail. In that he resembles the Tongan lord
of the place of spirits and Dianua the lord of spirits in New Caledonia. Since
then he has become the god of earthquakes, storms, and the seasons. They say
that whenever Ndengei shakes himself fertilising rain will fall, delicious fruits hang
on the trees, and the yam fields yield an excellent crop. But Ndengei is also a
god of wrath who declares himself in terrible fashion. He punishes and chastens
his people, now by destroying the crops, now by floods ; he could indeed easily
wipe out mankind from the earth, for since he has lived in the bowels of the earth
he has been tormented with so insatiable hunger that he would like to take
in and swallow the whole world. The gods in Fiji fall into different classes
according to -the degree of their relationship to Ndengei. As in Polynesia, people
3if
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
speak of the divine family — father, son, and daughter. Mautu-Maui, Ndengei's
assistant in creation, is called the " bread fruit " and " the son of the supreme god."
Ndengei has several sons besides who receive prayers on his account ; his grand-
children are territorial gods, his distant relations subordinate tribal gods. Among
them are symbolisations of properties or endowments, reminding one in their
crude luxuriance of India ; mechanical dexterity with eight arms, wisdom
with eight eyes, Waluwakatini with eighty stomachs. The two ferrymen of
souls also, and Rokomutu, born from his elbow, are mentioned as Ndengd's
children, for whom the legend of creation and the deluge offer the more obvious
foundation.
Men were made of stones or earth by the creator god and his attendants, or
Sacred place in Dorey, New Guinea, (After Raffray. )
else they are simply the successors of the gods themselves, and of them a woman
always appears first and then a man, from whose union the remaining heavenly
and earthly beings come into existence. In the Banks Island, Qat forms a being
by weaving supple twigs, and suddenly becomes aware by its smile that he has
produced a woman. Where Ndengei appears as the creator of men, his son
Mautu ( = Maui) is beside him as assistant. He made the first human pair from
the eggs of the snipe, Kitu ; his son developed them further till they were capable
of reproduction. In Micronesia, also, the creation of man took place from
inanimate stone, unless he was immediately connected with the gods by a fall due
to sin. In Fakaafo, the first man, having proceeded from stone, made the arms
and legs of his consort, Ivi, from clay, and enclosed one of his own ribs in her
body, and from them all other men sprang. In Pelew the divine couple, Irakaderngel
and Ejluajngadassakor, created mankind, he producing the men, she the women.
The modest creatrix hesitated to show her work, while the creator let his be seen
freely. Since then all women wear a skirt of pandanus leaves, while the men go
RELIGION IN OCEANIA 319
naked. The want of mental harmony prevailing between the two sexes is also
referred back to this early time, for as the creating couple kept laying their creations
pair by pair together on one side, it befell that many did not suit each other and
disagreed. The first created beings were moreover pure Kalits, giants in body
and strength, and rich in capacities which are lacking to the men of to-day. The
inhabitants of Ascension consider that the stone monuments of their islands were
built by these.
From among the gods of the second rank the god of war most frequently
takes his place beside the highest and the oldest, although the character of a hero
is clearly stamped upon him. His variations, also, are remarkable ; in Samoa,
Meru appears as the god of thunder and lightning, and passes into the war god
Meso, or Moso, who again reminds us of the Tahitian Oro. Although in later
times he was worshipped in the place of Maui as the finisher of creation, he is
nevertheless human in his origin. In New Zealand Maru sends the rain and
earthquakes also, he is recognised in the red planet Mars, and worshipped in the
South Island as god of war to whom the slain are offered as sacrifices. Next to
him the gods of the field and the harvest had the chief practical importance. Some
of their attributes could be transferred to Tangaroa, Tu, or Tane, and worshipped
with and in these. There were propitious and mischievous gods ; in Tonga one
was worshipped at the time of planting and the time of harvest, another was
prayed to at the irrigation of the fields. But the goddess of the wind overthrew
the plantations if she was not duly honoured. In New Zealand the image of
Tiki, the first man, was venerated at the time of harvest.
In conclusion, let us draw attention to one of the host of heroes. A mighty
figure meets us in Tawahaki, patriarch of the Maoris, whose acts were so illustrious
that a daughter of heaven was willing to be his wife. After the birth of a child
she fled back to heaven, and Tawahaki climbed up after her by a cobweb. But
his brothers-in-law wounded him, and in revenge he called forth a flood ; or, as
one tradition has it, stamping in his anger, he broke the crystal covering of heaven,
and the flood burst out. In the other legend, the hero, having been healed of his
wounds by his wife Hirepiripiri, prayed that the flood might descend and
annihilate his foes. Since that time Tawahaki has been propitiated at funerals
as the conductor who brings the souls of dead chiefs from earth to heaven. We
meet with earth-stampers also in Tonga. Huanaki and Fao swam from Tonga
to Niue, stamped on the island to make it rise higher, and by a second stamp
called forth the plants from which the first human pair sprang.
The condescension of female dwellers in heaven to earth-born heroes recurs in
another form in many Polynesian legends. The daughters of Langi, the lord of
heaven, feeling lonely in their empty house, made ready to set off and satisfy
their curiosity by a nearer look at the folks below on the earth. Just then the
sons of the prince were gathered at a festive kava-ArrvcC^uvg when the goddesses
drew near, and soon by the charm of their beauty kindled a bloody quarrel. The
fearful uproar was heard in Bolotu, terrifying the gods in their assembly-hall ; and
Langi hastened with all speed to punish the disturbers of the peace. But the
eldest daughter had already, in the wild hurly-burly, been torn to pieces by the
infuriated rivals, and the enraged father himself struck off the head of the youngest.
This was hurled into the sea and became a tortoise ; an animal which, since that,
chiefs are forbidden to eat.
320 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
The legend of the Fall, by which men, once godlike, became mortal, recurs in
varying forms all over the world. Formerly an old man merely stripped off his old
skin and appeared again in a new and rejuvenated form ; but in the Solomon and
Banks Islands all men became mortal in the following manner. An old woman
threw her skin, in the usual way, into the water, but it caught and hung in a pro-
jecting bush. With her youth renewed the mother returned home. But as her
children declined to recognise her, the old skin had to be looked for, whether or
no, and put on again. Since then every one has died. In Lifu, death came into
the world with the islanders' best fruit, the yam. The sons of the first man had been
turned into animals, and one of them, the rat, brought up to the surface, through
a hole, a yam-root from the plantations of an old gentleman residing at the centre
of the earth. This was planted, and then men began to die, their lives being
required in compensation for the stolen provisions. We are reminded also of the
Fall, when the god Nobu, having created men, deserts Erromango for ever. In
Vate they relate how the inhabitants, during the absence of Nugerain, one day
burnt his great store of pearl-shells, and were condemned to die as the penalty.
To the fall of man corresponds a period of general decadence and degrada-
tion among the gods, in which the transformation of the chief god into bestial
shape plays so important a part that one may see therein ■ a justification of the
apparently senseless worship of beasts. In Fiji they relate how Ndengei, looking
once upon a time into a clear brook, was astonished to see how ugly he was. For
•this cause he assumed the form of a serpent. " If," said he, " I remain an ugly
man, I shall be despised ; but if I am a serpent, every one will fear and obey me."
The preference shown for a beast-idol probably is due to a later growth, of the
nature of a throwing-back. The purer and higher worship of a lord fell to that
of a reptile ; fear took the place of heroic courage and wisdom. So too the demi-
gods are evidence of a corrupter age, which became dissatisfied with the old gods,
and sought others. In Fiji a chief betook himself one day to the mountains, and
cried : " Who will be my god ? " No voice replied, and he went down to the sea
and repeated his cry. Then a serpent answered " I will be thy god." The chief
was ready to recognise the serpent, and became its priest. But even in the serpent
form the worship was not permanent, for when Ndengei, with the end of his
serpent-body petrified into the foundations of the earth, had lain down to sleep in
the cavern of Raki-Raki, he was only visited by his old servant Uto ; and as the
worshippers grew more and more lukewarm, he generally came with empty hands.
A Deluge-legend recurs in many places, but unconnected so far as appears
with other mythologic conceptions of the same kind. Sometimes the supreme
deity originates the flood, sometimes heroes open the way for it. The Ndengei of
Fiji is also the Melanesian Neptune ; and his relations to Tangaroa and Maui,
the sovereigns of the sea and producers of floods, agree with this. When
Ndengei, in those days a great chief, was dwelling on the seashore, a war with
Tangaroa arose. Then he let the sea in from the north over all the low country and
drowned the invader, while he himself took refuge in the mountains. On another
occasion he flooded the whole country, because his twin sons had killed his
favourite bird, a cock with beautiful feathers. He lastly banished the twins to
the Reva district, where they became the patron gods of such as build canoes ;
and for this reason ship carpenters hold an almost sacred position, as in Tonga.
In the Pelews the Deluge-legend is told as follows. The old woman called
RELIGION IN OCEANIA 321
Milath, who brought forth the four great lands, Hved, at an advanced age, in the
country of Ngareksbukt in Ejrraj. Once on a time the people there had killed
one of the seven Kalits, and his friends in their course through Pelew came to
Milath's house. She invited them in in friendly fashion, and asked what they
wanted. The searchers explained that they were the friends of the missing man.
The old woman gave them food, but also imparted the sad news that he had been
slain by the people of her country. Then the friends in their wrath decided to
destroy the whole land, with the exception of Milath, and advised her accordingly
to make herself a raft of bamboo. This she was to keep in readiness attached by a
long cable of lianas to an anchor in front of her house, and shortly before the full
moon put much victuals on board and sleep there, for a great flood was coming.
The old woman did as she was advised, and then the water flooded all the dry
land ; only the raft with old Milath remained afloat. But presently the cable of
liana proved too short, and Milath was carried away by the flood and drowned.
She drifted lifeless against a rock, and her hair got entangled in the boughs of a
tree, where she was found by her friends. According to some, the body was
changed into a stone, which is still to be seen ; but others say that it was revivified
by a Kalit woman who took her form, and that she bore to the men who had
taken part in the search those five children from whom the population of the
Pelew Islands is descended. The Banks Islanders tell a somewhat similar tale.
Otherwise these floods are not always of the nature of judgments. Ndengei
indeed causes one when he turns round. Here, as everywhere, legends of migra-
tions are mixed up with the floods, and thus even historical migrations of the
Pacific races connect themselves therewith.
The service of the gods is not exclusively the priests' affair ; but they occupy
a pre-eminent position in consideration of their holding intercourse with the highest
among the heavenly beings, and attending to their sanctuaries and sacrifices.
Nothing is more sacred than matters connected with the gods ; temples, idols,
sacrifices, feasts, and whatever is used thereat, animals, trees where the gods are
wont at times to stay, and the like. In Tahiti the custom by which the king, as
the most sacred member of the community, entered the house of a god at its
dedication for the first time unattended, has been transferred to Christian churches.
Every man's immediate worship was paid to the god of his family. To this
family-god the father of the household prays before the fire at the time of the
evening meal ; and at family feasts the eldest offers the ava-ho^\ to the gods of
the household. But the child is dedicated at birth to the communal god whom
the priest serves. He appears in the form of an animal, whose movements the
priests interpret as omens. Lastly, the priests serve the great gods of the nation,
being themselves chiefs or closely attached to the chiefs. Thence arose the state-
ment, due to misunderstanding, that private persons served their gods in person,
chiefs through the priests.
These priests are in Tonga distinguished by the name " set apart," since they
are men with a special kind of soul. Their posterity are regarded as similarly
endowed, and thus the priesthood is always hereditary in a family standing over
that of the chiefs, or the chiefs are themselves hereditary priests. A certain
character oi Dei gratia extends even to the village headmen. In Samoa the fire
may not go out, even at night, in a chief's house. Whoever would not bring the
due first-fruits to the chief of his village was overtaken by disasters, for the chief
Y
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
shared the taxes with the Aitus. In time of war high chiefs remain in the
village to assist by their prayers ; but on serious occasions the priest is taken into
the battle to curse the enemy. In Hawaii one member at least of a chief's family
received consecration to the priesthood. The priest is possessed by the souls of
the dead, and his family god is his helper. Beside this inspiration a great deal of
valuable traditional knowledge belong to him, the most important parts of which
go back to the very highest gods, and form a source of great influence. If a
priest can succeed in. getting possession of any small portion of another man, he
can by art-magic exercise power over him, so the good and ill of their fellow-men
is in the priest's hands. For this reason the chief's pocket-handkerchief carrier in
Hawaii is never allowed to go far away. Relics of dead persons afforded the
most important means of magic. In Mare a tuft of a priest's hair, his eyebrows,
bones, finger and toe-nails ; in New Caledonia his finger-nails ; in Tonga bone
figures in human form ; in Samoa tapa which has been worn by renowned ancestors,
are talismans. But the most highly-
valued article is the skull, which is
prepared, preserved, and venerated in
the most various ways. A man's
hair, nails, etc., slowly burnt in a
certain mixture, react on him so as
to cause illness or even death. If a
^, „ . piece of a dead man's bone is wrapped
Love charm, from New Guinea — one-fifth real size. : , , . , . : .,
(Christy Collection. ) in leaves and laid m the way, while
a verse is sung, the person for whom
the magic is meant will be visited with boils, eruptions, and so on. The Maori
priests kill their enemy by putting a stone for a heart into his image. Beside
the priests there were sorcerers in New Zealand, astrologers in Hawaii. In the
latter country the sons of Hina, the Polynesian Selene, were instructed in magic
by their mothers. Great value was set upon knowledge in the priests. Their
name Tohunga, literally " interpreter of tokens," was applied in New Zealand to
any person conspicuous for achievements in any line, whether canoe-building or
spear-making ; he was a learned man. All the tohungas in a New Zealand tribe
regarded the most learned as Tino Tohunga, the highest of all, and he lived with
the ariki or chiefs. Where there were no bards, as in the Marquesas, the priests
were the guardians of historical tradition, as for instance the Kahunas of Hawaii.
The social position of the priests was different in different groups. Out-
wardly they were distinguished by their tattooing (of wavy lines on the. forehead,
among the Maoris) and their long staff. Priest-kings, or ariki, formed among
the Maoris the top of the social structure. They did not go to war, but left that
duty to a selected chief of their kindred. They retained the power of laying on
taboo, even if the chiefship had been transferred to another ; and boasted of being
sprung from an older branch of the common family tree. None but the ariki
knew the sacred songs. The place where he sat had to be avoided, or tabooed,
and to touch his hand was a capital offenj:e. In Tonga, the eldest niece of the
Tuitonga was a priest-princess, ranking with, and in some respects above, the prince.
In other cases, those who were permanently inspired were priests only, even when
they were only honoured servants. Boat-builders, as servants of Tangaroa, had
priestly privileges ; and in Oahu a chief was zX once priest, schoolmaster fisher-
RELIGION IN OCEANIA
323
man, and maker of wooden bowls. Among the Marquesans, the atuas or god-
like prophets were at the head of the tabooed ranks ; next to them came
hereditary chiefs ; then the tuas, who prophesied amid convulsions, and after their
death received sacrifices as atuas ; the tohunas who offered sacrifices in accordance
with tradition ; the ouhous or moas, assistants of the sacrificing priest ; the toas or
leaders in war ; and lastly the natikahas, who uttered the curses. In Hawaii,
also, the priest took precedence of the prince. Disputes about the sanctity, or
the privileges of the priests, have very often occasioned splits in the tribe and
migrations. Migrations of idols carried by the priests form an interesting part of
the Polynesian migration legend. In order to maintain
his place, or rise higher, the priest had to offer sacrifices
in no small number. Among the Maoris,' the tohungas
lived in celibacy, but the chief priest of the tribe had to
marry in order to keep up the succession. Besides this,
the consecrated tauiras had to fast, and lived apart from
the rest with the priests, round the temple.
Yap, Nukuor, and other Micronesian islands, have a
priest-chief, and priests as distinct from sorcerers. In-
visible Kalits pass for oracles by a fraud, at the back of
which are the priests. They possess houses in a number
of districts, each inhabited by a woman who is per-
manently dedicated to them. Many obtain great in-
fluence through intercourse with sacred animals. Lastly,
the taboo-system contributes here also to the creation
of limits, whereby the priests keep the power of inter-
fering in every relation of life. In quite small tribes, the
eldest person undertakes the management of worship,
while in larger communities he has beside him a priest,
who is doctor, weather-maker, and sorcerer. He must
have the faculty of going into an ecstatic state. Tradi-
tion is preserved in the family, and in his conjuration the Article employed in Meianesian
priest turns for inspiration first to his ancestors. If he rites, for holding objects of use
^ . ,1. 1 • 1 1 t ,. in magic — one-half real size.
has ancestors m whom others believe, he is doubly quali- (Berlin iviuseum.)
fied to be priest.
The priests draw omens from the sky, from the barking of dogs, the crowing
of cocks, etc., or from their own oracular implements. Before a war, the Maori
priest prophesies by putting up carved sticks on a sand-heap, according to the
number of the friendly and hostile tribes, and throwing at them with a bunch of
strings tied together ; the forecast is propitious if the sticks fall up hill. Before
any undertaking, the Maori used to deliver magic sentences. Every chant has
its rhythm, and is divided into verses, so that it may be propagated more easily
from one generation to another. Other songs have an expiatory effect. The
mata, or vision, is a mirror of the future. Nightly visions are interpreted as the
soul's journeys into the spirit land ; and for this reason dreams serve to prescribe
tribal decrees. In Hawaii, the priest, when prophesying, made the symbols of
thunder and lightning with his stone axe, by way of calling upon the god of the
sky for aid.
The consecration of the priest took place with great ceremonies. In New
3-4
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
^
(
%
Zealand, where there was a kind of school of the
priests, the candidates stood under a covering of
boughs with one foot in the water, the other on
land. The secret science of the priests was im-
parted to their disciples by the head of the records ;
this law demanded extraordinary attention. A
single wrong word in conjurations might spoil
everything, and even be fatal to the priest. Com-
mune and tribe were no prouder of their god than
of his tried and tested priest.
Where things are on a small scale, the priest is
doctor as well ; but where men are assembled in
larger numbers, as in Hawaii, Tonga, or New
Zealand, there is a class of priests specially occu-
pied with medical practice. One of their chief
duties is to get some information from the deity
about the patient's illness ; to this end the priest,
sitting near the sick man after conjurations, ad-
dresses inquiries to the deity, and receives his
answer in a shrieking voice. Sicknesses which
cannot be cured by the priest are described as
coming from forefathers. In the administration of
justice, the priest's duty consists in discovering the
criminal by secret means. They look for him in
the water ; if they cannot catch sight of him they
make fire by rubbing, and utter a curse over it.
In this way they endeavour to find those who have
caused perplexing cases of death by magic arts.
Most ordeals also are in the hands of the priest ;
in Hawaii, the suspected person must hold his
hands over water, and the water must not tremble
in the vessel while the priest looks on him.
Dances and songs are indispensable parts of
divine service, especially at the feast of the bread-
fruit gathering. In this either they use dancing
staves, or the operation consists only of harmonious
movements of the arms and legs. Semper heard
of loose dances practised by the women of Pelew,
it was said on moonlight nights, in honour of a
female deity, but he was kept in the dark on the
subject. Dances are held to the accompaniment
of songs recited by girls, in honour of fortunate
head hunters. On these occasions it is usual to
paint the legs and all the upper part of the body
red, but a good part of the veneration of the gods
consists in silence. Gods who possess no temple,
must not be disturbed by noisy movement or shouting. When Rongala
descends upon the island of Fais, there must be neither talking nor noise. The
.X
Human figure of shells and hermit-
crabs, used as a temple-ornament in
New Ireland — one-eighth real size.
(Berlin Museum.)
RELIGION IN OCEANIA 325
inhabitants draw near to the forest only in festal garments and softly. Sacred
places are of many kinds ; one must not always expect buildings, the whole
world is animate, and all Nature may be regarded as a temple. Places are
sacred only by reason of the spirits that are dwelling in them ; where the
conditions were simple, the priest's house, in which the fire might never go
out, was the locality for sacred transactions ; every grave is holy of itself, and
in all these places there was a right of asylum. The soul-worship, customary
here, gave rise to places of adoration, where in course of time the cult of other
spirits could also find a footing. Places devoted exclusively to the adoration
of the gods as a rule existed more in the eastern group of islands, but these
also were originally only places of burial. Since, at the death of any eminent
person, no new burial place was made, but the interment took place in the
sanctuary of an ancestor, the sanctity attaching to a place mounted up. Large
octagonal stone buildings with steps were rare, and were devoted only to the most
illustrious ; while in more recent times they seemed to have ceased. More usually
rectangular mounds of earth were erected, 10 to 14 feet in height, surrounded at
the bottom with a low wall: The level top was often paved, and one or more
pretty shrines stood upon it, their floors carefully laid with small pebbles ; these
covered the grave. On one of the longer sides, two or three high steps led to the
level top, which was surrounded on the other three sides with a wall or a hedge.
On it stood altars resembling high platforms, and also images of the gods, some
of which were also usually fastened to the surrounding walls. There were single
houses for the priests, and even sacred trees. In those times, too, the images of
the chief gods were not in the temples, only on solemn occasions they were
brought from the priests' house into the temple by sacred bearers who were not
allowed to carry on any other occupation. In Micronesia, enclosures and buildings
of wood and stone, frequently coinciding with burial places, serve as places of
adoration, called Marae, and Amalau. Mausolea of this kind in the interior of
Rotuma, consist of stone buildings like dolmens formerly used for graves ; they
are octagonal near Metalanim in Ponap6, made like three boxes, one inside
another, or in cellar-like excavations filled with bones ; there are similar buildings
in Ualan. Other sacred stone erections take the form of a small step pyramid,
ascended by a stair, and with a summit crowned by an upright stone. In the
Pelew Islands, the Kalits dwell in octagonal wooden huts, inside of which a small
partition of boards is set up, while the priest, through whom the spirit speaks to
men, lives outside. It is just the same in Fiji, but here the old fashion is giving
way to modern times. Semper even saw Kalits dwelling in simple huts. Among
the Melanesians, again, the sacred places are graves, spots where the skull and
other remains of ancestors are preserved, and solitary places in forests on the
shore,- on mountain tops, in caves, which spirits like to visit. The nearest
approach to temples are the common meeting-houses. In the Solomon Islands
these are called sacred houses — the name " devil's house " is naturally the offspring
of European fancy ; but they are never used exclusively for religious purposes.
A far-reaching influence was produced on the life of these races by the fact
that they made no special images of their gods, but regarded them rather as
only temporarily embodied in arbitrarily selected things. Fetishes of this kind
were, however, not absolutely necessary for intercourse with the gods. Prayers
uttered in a low tone with a whispering movement of the lips were, as with us.
326 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
directed up to heaven, and in Hawaii customary language drew a contrast between
the worship of idols and speech addressed to invisible beings. The idols were only
reverenced when the god had taken up his abode in them, and the priest could
obtain this by prayer and sacrifice. The choice of objects was quite arbitrary,
it might be matting or wood, but only the sacred wood of the tree Casuarina
equisetifolia, and only if this could not be obtained that of Calophyllum, Ficus, or
Cordia. Stones were employed very frequently, roughly worked wood-blocks
with a human countenance recognisable at a pinch, and frequently with the
sexual parts indicated in an exaggerated degree ; blocks of stone similarly
worked, even imposing statues, as on Easter Island, and giant stone figures ;
spirits of the sand and of the rock are the nearest approach to our idea of an
idol. But as a matter of fact, these are often less revered than some perfectly
arbitrary figure — a bit of wood bound round with string, or a twig of banana
tied up with coco-nut fibre. We must not see an " idol " in every carved image ;
for figure-carving is an art, carried on con aniore and with great ability. In the
stone figures we may possibly assume the survivals of a former cult, holding a
closer relation to mythologic and historical conceptions than does that of shape-
less lumps of wood. In the west we are obviously much nearer to the origin of
these figures. If a Papua has died, his son carves a figure, sets it up in the house,
and calls upon it in difficulties ; when the sculptor himself dies, his son makes
an idol of him, and throws away the now useless grandfather. In the Duke of
York Island (New Lauenburg) have been found double idols, supposed to repre-
sent an ancestral married couple. These figures of souls conventionalised can
easily pass into regular idols. The idols from Dorey in New Guinea, 6 to 8
inches high, represent unquestionably a sexless being, standing with its arms
supported on an ornamental trellis (as in the cut on p. 301). This development
converts the domestic ancestral figure into a public institution. In the Solomon
Islands crude carvings of this kind support the roof of the assembly hall. In
the far-famed Hawaii feather idols, the idea of the mythological bird (for instance,
the sacred alae bird) lay no doubt originally at the root of the representation.
In Tonga the patron god of a tribe was symbolised by a folded mat with red
feathers ; in New Zealand red feathers were strewn about to ensure fertility.
Idols were set up in spots where immediate help was expected from them.
Along the roads in Hawaii stones wrapped in grass are pointed out as local gods;
and on mountain-paths sacrifices were offered before upright stones to avert a
fall. To this class belong also the gods' footprints in stone, to which legends
have become attached even in comparatively recent times. Near Taupa in New
Zealand a chief left his footstep on a rock ; and the prints of a chief who had
been slain by Kamehameha were pointed out to Birgham. The temple precinct
was a recognised asylum wherever social relations were at all advanced, and
herein temple and grave coincide. In Hawaii, asylum might be sought near the
grave of the kings, and similarly in Tonga a chiefs burial place was holy ground.
Also the capability of affording protection passed in both cases from the place
to the priest who served it. In Ranai an asylum was formed diagonally across
the island, by a simple process. The priests allowed fugitives to pass under their
staves, which they then crossed against the pursuers.
Where the souls of ancestors held the front place as objects of veneration,
sacrifice and prayer were devoted to them ; elsewhere spirits were the objects of
RELIGION IN OCEANIA
327
these. But prayers of themselves reckoned as oblations — traditional forms, of
which the meaning had often been long forgotten, but which had always passed
by inheritance, and were even imparted for payment to the ignorant. Interces-
sory hymns, well composed and often very
long, were distinguished from short invoca-
tions, the productions of the moment. They
were held pleasing to the god, and even
replaced the sacrifice. Fison notices, with
regard to Fijian prayers, that petitions to the
prejudice of an enemy as a rule balanced
those for the suppliant's own profit.
In funeral customs the main underlying
thought is the sacredness of the corpse by
reason of the neighbourhood of the soul,
even after its departure. But this only holds
good for the relatives ; strangers have no
scruple about injuring a dead body. All
dealings with the soul, which has been taken
up to the gods, are most easily carried out
in the neighbourhood of the body. For this
reason, in New Zealand the priests sing over
the body to assist the passage of the soul
upwards at least to the eighth heaven ; and
on the assumption that the soul must be
invited, if not compelled, by prayer or magic
to leave the corpse, they stroke this with a
whisk, and shake it. Visits paid by souls
of living people are often hindered by putting
on a mask, which would cut off the soul's
return. Souls which neither remain united
with the deity, nor can be propitiated by
sacrifices, roam about the houses at night
as ghosts. These wandering souls may be
heard in the rustle of the leaves and the
surge of the waves, or seen by moonlight as
white phantoms. Souls of persons who had
died at a distance v/ere enticed by spreading
a white cloth, and if a grasshopper or an ant
came to the call, it was deemed that the end
had been attained. Old age often obtained
reverence from a wish to be on good terms
with the soul which was soon to depart.
The deeper meaning of the widespread
custom of sending wives and servants to
accompany the dead into eternity, lay in the
wish to give the departed soul an escort, or to send at least one soul as protec-
tion, in case it stood in need thereof In this way a mother, grandmother, or
aunt was strangled when a child died, that the infant soul might not be
Child-mummy on the bier used for burial, from
Torres Straits — one-sixth real size. (Berlin
Museum. )
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
unprotected. Provision also had to be made for the fights which, as we have
seen, take place on the road to Hades. It is only after several days, when it
may be assumed that the soul of the corpse has bden turned into a spirit, that
the mourning begins ; its object being even to this day to start the spirit upon
the road into the next world, which it is perhaps unwilling to take. In view
of the possibility of a periodic return, care is taken to renew the noise at stated
times.
Great variety prevails in modes of interment. In the west the body is kept
at hand as long as possible ; and at least portions of it, especially the skull, and
above all the lower jaw, are prepared for permanent conservation. On the Maclay
coast of New Guinea the corpse has usually to be dried before the fire in the hut.
In other islands it is hung up in mats between the branches of trees until the
soft parts have decayed away, after which it is laid symmetrically with other
skeletons in a cave on the seashore. Children's bodies are merely hung up in
basket under the roof Burial within the hut is customary in Fiji. Among the
Motus of Port Moresby the only sign of mourning is the incessant beating of
drums for three days. When this is over, the grave is dug in front of the house,
the dead body laid in a mat, and a little hut built over the grave. After a time
the grave is opened, the corpse taken out and smeared on the elbows and knees
with red ochre, while the widow smears herself with the decaying flesh. Then
the dead man is put by again, and the little sepulchral house is gradually pulled
to pieces, so that no trace of the grave is left. All these proceedings are
accompanied by carousals.
In Tonga the corpses of eminent persons were washed, ornamented and oiled,
and watched by women. At the actual interment the relations, clad in torn mats
and wearing chaplets of the leaves of the 2)f-tree, carried the body into its house,
and buried it there in its clothes, often in a chest or little boat, and its most
valuable possession with it. Then all, loudly singing, went to the shore, made
baskets of coco-palm leaves, and poured white sand therein, with which they filled
the upper part of the grave. The men remained for twenty days in lightly
constructed huts near the house of mourning, the women within, both occupied in
sacred offices. On the twentieth day, all went again to the shore, fetched black
and white pebbles in newly-made baskets, and paved the sepulchral house there-
with. In Tahiti the entrails were removed and the cavity filled with cloths dipped
in essential oils. The body was then kept till it fell to pieces, when the bones
were buried, and the skull set up among the family. In the Marquesas, the
notables were buried in the marais, in a sitting posture, with the knees drawn
up, and the head pressed down between the legs, and the hands passed under
the knees. Funeral feasts were held, the invitations to which were carried by
richly-clothed messengers.
There is an immediate relation between the dignity of the soul of a dead
person and the treatment of his body. The lower classes seem often to have
taken little trouble about their dead. In Hawaii a common man buried his dead
in a crouching posture, wrapped in cloth, in a cave or in the ground ; sometimes
in a house. Food was put beside him. In New Zealand the slaves were thinly
covered with earth ; or in many cases thrown to the dogs or cast into the sea.
In some districts it is said to have been usual to burn them. In Mangaia the
custom obtained of wrapping the dead in white stuff and throwing them into one
RELIGION IN OCEANIA 2,^9
of two deep holes, according to their rank in society, the entrance to the nether
world being different for persons of high degree and for the common herd. But
in the higher classes the corpse was generally mummified, and exposed to view
for a certain time in the temple or the dead-house. For the purposes of embalm-
ment the entrails were removed. In Hawaii the flesh was carefully separated
from the bones and burnt ; while of the bones themselves part were deposited in
the family heiau as objects of divine honours, part distributed among friends. A
kind of embalming also took place in Hawaii, and was not unknown in New
Zealand, where burial customs most resembled those of Tahiti. There people's
own houses often served as graves, the remains of the dead being allowed to stand
in chests ; otherwise they were interred. Children's bodies were also hung up in
chests among the boughs of a tree. Indispensable articles were the kehui — the
word means " forbidden," and passes into " taboo "■ — wooden posts, painted red,
with carved faces, which stood round like sentinels.
Only in certain small outer islands were variations found. In the Gambier
Islands the mummies were laid out wrapped in mats and cloth tied up with
strings and put away in mountain caverns. In Falefa chiefs were preserved in
a hut or in a cave laid upon a double canoe. In Mulgrave the dead were laid
out upon stones covered with coco-palm leaves and afterwards buried in the family
vault. Isolated cases of the disposal of the body by launching it out to sea in
a canoe were obviously a variation of the custom of placing a conveyance at
the disposal of the soul for its journey into the other world. In the Gilbert
Islands a widow sleeps under the same mat with the corpse of her deceased
husband until the head drops off the body ; the skull is then cleaned, and she
carries it about with her constantly, as is also done with the skull of a beloved
child. This cult of skulls is also found elsewhere in Micronesia. In Yap the
dead are never buried in the neighbourhood of the sea, the inhabitants of the
mountains never anywhere but on mountain-tops. Adults were placed in a sitting
position with knees drawn up, children and young people lying down. A curious
combination of land and sea burial is found in Kusaie where the bones after
burial are dug up, cleaned, tied in a bundle, and sunk in the sea.
Where interment is usual the skull is often separated from the body. Owing
to this A. B. Meyer was enabled to acquire many human skulls by barter, since
the Papuas did not hesitate, after exhausting their own store of slain enemies'
heads, to plunder their relatives' graves ; yet they could not at first make up
their minds to hand over the lower jaw. Thus reverence for human remains has
its limits, and yet these Papuas in West New Guinea always avoided handling the
skulls.
Great differences also occur within the much narrower limits of other archi-
pelagos. On some islands in the Solomon group the corpse is thrown into the
sea to swim away to the beautiful land in the west ; in Anaiteum it is only the
body of the supreme chief that is interred. Before they are thrown into the sea
female corpses are clothed with their girdles, and males have the face painted. In
other islands the bodies are wrapped in mats and taken into the mangrove thickets,
where they are exposed to the air until the head can be easily separated from the
trunk. The head is then prepared and the rest buried in the common burying-
place. In San Cristoval and other places, the dead are laid upon a high stage,
and a trench is dug underneath to receive the flesh which is sliced off by the
330 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
mourners ; skull and finger-bones are taken away as heirlooms, and a hut or
pjramidal framework covered with leaves is erected over the trench ; graves of
children are strewn with flowers.
While in Tanna the corpse is laid in a boat-shaped coffin, in New Caledonia
paddle and spear are set up on the graves. Here ornaments are put with the
body, but if not the whole skull at any rate the lower jaw is preserved as a relic,
and so in New Ireland, Duke of York's Island, and Vate. In the last-named island
trees in the neighbourhood of the graves are cut in a peculiar fashion.
The outward indications of the grief of the mourners go as far as self-injuries
and mutilations. In Tonga, when the king's mother died the chiefs descended
from her branded their temples, and at the death of the high priest it was usual to
cut off a joint of the little finger. The Tahiti women used as soon as they were
married to fix sharks' teeth in a wooden handle with which to wound themselves
when mourning for their husbands. On these occasions they, with their friends,
invoked the soul of the departed. In Tahiti also, the chief mourner wore clothing
made of the shroud, while the others went with their clothes torn and sprinkled
with dust, and the neighbours who came to lament had a sham fight with the
household of the departed in order to the due performance of the common lamenta-
tion. Funeral fights were also held in Mangaia, where all the friends of the
deceased went about the island in strange clothing to attack the ghosts of other
districts.
The practice of burying alive is widely extended, it was extensively used as a
means of infanticide, but old and sick people sought of their own free will to be
buried. In the case of new-born children a fire was lighted over the grave to
stifle the soul. In Vate, when old people are to be buried alive, a pig is tied to
their arm, which is afterwards consumed at the feast and accompanies the soul into
the next world. In the Fiji Islands it is also customary to strangle, and the cord
is regarded there as a great kindness in comparison with the club. If a chief in
the Solomon Islands dies his wives are strangled in their sleep ; it would be a
shame for them and an insult to the dead man's memory if they were to marry
men ^ of lower rank. The same end is frequently allotted to the wives or nearest
relations of an ordinary man ; even in death he must be surrounded by those who
love him. In Anaiteum the women are said to wear the ominous cord round
their necks from their wedding day.
South Australian Native Women.
(From a photograph.)
B.— THE AUSTRALIANS
lo. AUSTRALIA
Australia, forming the south-eastern border of the great mass of land belonging
to the " old world," looks south towards uninhabited regions, east towards the
Pacific crowded with islands, numerous indeed but forming collectively only a
small surface of land. Its position reminds us of South Africa. Those sides of the
divisions of the earth which look out into vacancy were historically dead until a few
centuries ago oceanic navigation brought to them trade and colonisation from afar.
Australia, the most insular of all the quarters of the globe, has received a larger
share than all the others of that culture-stunting gift — vacant coasts. Its situa-
tion, open on three sides, forbids us to doubt that in so far as Australia has any
recognisable relation with other parts of the earth, it can only be with Asia and
the island world, — what little intercourse it had in the pre-European days, and
the immigration of certain plants and animals, all point to this. This justifies
us in claiming Australia as part of the old world, which can do no harm, especially
from an ethnographic point of view. With great probability as regards its human
population, with absolute certainty in respect to our modern culture, Australia
may be regarded as the most south-easterly portion of the old world, as a depend-
ency of Asia. If we consider ,the question of distances, the inhabitants would,
without navigation, be confined to their quarter of the earth, but with even primi-
tive navigation they could reach Asia and more immediately the eastern parts of
the Malay archipelago. Their civilization will therefore have an isolated character ;
but where there are deep-lying connections with the outside world, we shall have to
direct our inquiries towards Asia.
■Even if Australia has more peninsulas than America and Africa, its coasts in
compensation form the most desert portions of the land. Along the east coast runs
a chain of mountains, the only marked watershed from the North to the South Cape.
Similarly, the moderate elevations of West Australia rise near the coast. A great
part of the north and north-west is a plain sloping up gently from the sea, and
reaching its maximum height of 1600 to 2000 feet in a distance of 50 or 60
geographical miles. Rivers of similar fall flow down the slope, and often in the
heavy tropical rains overflow their banks widely. The Barcoo, flowing along with
a slight gradient and endless windings, is capable of watering a full third of the
interior with its tributaries, that seldom have any water in them. But the South
Australian lake region, towards which it bears its waters, does not rise very far
above the level of the sea. The characteristics of its desert shores are sand hills
between the lakes and on their banks, stony flats resembling the sea-shore and
soil impregnated with salt. There is only one river system of considerable import-
334
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
ance, that of the Murray, the sources of which occupy the whole region on the
western slope of the mountain range from New South Wales to Queensland.
In the north and north-west, where there is more rain, watercourses are numerous,
but there is no stream. In the west and interior, we find no doubt plenty of
watercourses on the maps, but none in reality. They are merely creeks and
Eucalyptus Forest in South Australia. (From the account of the voyage of the ' • Novara ").
water-holes filled by rain during a small part of the year. We shall see how
closely the life of the natives is bound up with these transitory watercourses and
springs, and how insecure, owing to this dependence, is their entire life. The most
promising collections of water dry up with extraordinary rapidity. The change-
able direction of the streams, even in the larger river beds, makes the habitability
of wide districts, if no permanent precautions are taken for damming up super-
fluous water in the wet season, a matter of uncertainty. The rapid change from
A USTRALIA 335
wet to dry causes wide tracts to become barren and desert. Even the lakes are
subject to this, and the maintenance of old lakes or creation of new ones has
become one of the most prominent necessities in the cultivation of Australia.
Wide districts are impregnated with salt, an^ perfectly sweet water is a rarity.
" Good water," says one of the missionaries from Hermansburg, speaking of the
lower Barcoo, "that is, understanding it in the Australian sense ; for what at home
we call bad water, passes here for good." The abundance of salt, by limiting the
vegetation, produces in the interior landscapes which resemble barren coasts ; salt
lakes with islands consisting of sand dunes are among the characteristic features
of West Australian landscapes.
The climate of Australia is predominantly dry ; the moist breezes which blow
from other zones upon the north and south-east portions, cannot prevent the
fundamentally dry quality of the trade-wind climate from prevailing over the
entire continent. If Africa was limited to the region north of a line drawn from
Cape Verd to Cape Guardafui, we should have in the northern hemisphere the
counterpart of the climatic conditions of Australia. On the south coast, a climate
like that of the Mediterranean prevails, with sharply-defined dry and' wet seasons.
Between 30° and 18° South latitude lies a band of desert plateau corresponding
with the Sahara, while in the north we have the rainy season of summer coming
in when the sun is overhead. While in New Guinea, in the neighbourhood of the
Equator,. the rainy time extends over the greater part of the year, we find in
Tasmania rain at all seasons as in Central Europe. Thus there remains in the
north . and south a considerable quantity of sufficiently fertile land, and to call
Australia desert is going too far ; the effect of drought is confined mostly to the
plateau formation. But even where the total amount of water which reaches the
earth is, not absolutely small, it is often unfavourably distributed. As we go inland
from the well-cultivated coast, the fields and pastures of the flourishing colonies
of South Australia, Victoria, and New South Wales, are only too often visited by
the most ruinous droughts.
The very appearance of the landscape in this region expresses dryness. Dry-
ness and stiffness are the distinguishing marks of the Australian flora, even in the
most favoured districts where lofty forests rise on the banks of permanent streams.
The flora, though considerably richer than in Europe, is more uniform and less
expressive. Australia is poor in forests ; trees when growing in masses have here
the character less of forest than of grove. The wooded grass country is a posses-
sion of Australia no less beautiful than useful. In the south-east and the north
prairies of a considerable extent are found, and upon these the most extensive
and most important branch of Australian industry is maintained. As the country
becomes dryer, the grass thins away into isolated tufts, and takes the form of
steppe, which gradually passes into desert as barren rock appears, or as the ground
becomes impregnated with salt. The Australian steppe, in its most inhospitable
form, is the scrub ; the region covered with inpenetrable bushes where the surface
is covered thick with a tangle of ericacecz and proteacecB, with trees rising out of them
here and there. The ordinary height of these bushy steppes, which cover many
square miles, is always more considerable than that of our heaths. The forest
savannah has been extolled as the blessing of the country, the inland scrub is its
curse. Leichhardt, Sturt, Stewart, wandered round the scrub for weeks, nay months,
without being able to find any way through it. Another steppe, overgrown with
336
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
the spinifex, Festuca irritans, affords a friendly and homelike picture of fields of ripe
corn as far as the eye can reach, but in reality belongs to the most desolate and
dangerous regions, for the grass-like stalks are dry and contain no nourishment,
standing sharp and stiff. If then in estimating the capacity of Australia for
culture, we can call it rather a great steppe country than a waste, yet these
hardly accessible plains must be for a long time, and notoriously were for the
aborigines at any time, a great
hindrance to movement and to
the production of food. Where
the steppe thins away and dries
up to a desert among sand dunes,
salt, or rocky plains, its appear-
ance is seldom so hopeless as in
the great deserts of the old
world ; it is hardly anywhere
denuded of vegetation. Its
counterpart is to be found in the
lesser Kalahari ; the Sahara is
incomparably barer, but there
we find not merely an alterna-
tion of rock plateaus and sandy
plains, lofty mountains and deep
depressions, uninhabitable regions
and groups of oases, but above
all whole nations, peoples of
various race and speech, towns,
villages, herds, roads, trade, and
intercourse. The Australian
desert suffers from the most
tedious monotony, but has the
advantage over Sahara in its
more limited extent.
The wealth of Australia in
food products must not be judged
from the fact that no single in-
digenous plant has become an
object of agriculture. We do not
yet know all its articles of food, but some of them are things of which we should
never have believed it possible to make use. Of vegetable food-stuffs. Grey
adduces for South Australia alone twenty-one different roots, dwscorece, orchids,
ferns, a typha, and others ; four kinds of gum or resin, seven fungi, several fruits ;
among them a sago palm, and lastly the flowers of the Banksia with abundance
of honey. In the north the list is larger, being materially enriched by others;
sago palm, cabbage palm, the shoots of the mangrove, which are pounded fer-
mented, and eaten mixed with an indigenous bean, the grain-bearing marsiliacece,
the roots of nymphcea, and several fruits. The North-west Australians know how
to deprive the sago fruit and the orchid bulbs of their poison. It is true that the
root of the so-called Australian yam is small, and the eucalyptus gum has not
Marsilia Drummondii..
PHYSICAL AND MENTAL CHARACTER OF THE AUSTRALIANS 337
much nourishment ; and we must also admit that Australia is remarkably poor in
the plants which take away something of their natural poverty from other steppe
countries, such as the various species of cucumber, gourd, and melon, and the
various bulbous plants. But the fact that the Australians of themselves never
reached the agricultural stage, depends not so much upon their flora as upon the
degree of their civilization. So again, the fauna of Australia has not produced a
single domestic or useful animal. Those who know, declare that the mammals
which would be first in demand are too wild ; the dingo, which is the only
Australian mammal accessible to taming, was in all probability imported tame,
and afterwards ran wild. But with the poverty of vegetation, the fauna which
will live in a wild state is poorly represented here. Significant also is the rarity
of fish and other eatable aquatic animals caused by the deficiency of water. The
South Australians first learnt from Europeans to eat oysters ; the West Australians
eat four or five kinds of snakes, some poisonous, and three kinds of lizards. The
grub of a beetle which lives in the grass palm is also much fancied, and birds'
eggs are eagerly sought. The only parts where the larger mammals, especially
kangaroos, still abound, are the broad grassy plains in the north and north-east.
The poverty of the continent in animals has played an important part in the
exploration of Australia, since no expedition has been able to depend for subsist-
ence upon hunting. Kangaroo and emu hunting must, on account of the swiftness
of those animals, have been extremely difficult for the Australians, equipped as they
were with inferior weapons ; and besides this, snaring must have been rendered
difficult by the nocturnal habits of by far the larger proportion of mammals.
§ II. PHYSICAL AND MENTAL CHARACTER OF THE
AUSTRALIANS
Uniformity of bodily characteristics throughout Australia — Mental distinctions — Malay and Negroid forms —
Woolly and straight hair — Big and little men — Languages — Character and mental peculiarities — Courage —
Writing — Language of signs — Rock -drawings — Effect of nomadism — Instances of its extent.
The prominent characteristic of this continent is the agreement in degree of
culture, in manner of life, in customs, to a certain extent even in language, and
that a greater agreement than we find anywhere else in an equally limited area.
But physically too the Australians have seemed to many modern anthropologists
to be so little separated that the descriptions which these have given would hold
good from the Murray to the York peninsula. It is said that they are men of
medium stature, not badly proportioned in themselves, but lean owing to bad
nutrition. In their cast of features may be recognised an intermediate stage
between Negroes and Malays, what is called a hybrid physiognomy. We are
reminded of the Malay by the straight rather than woolly hair, the prominent
cheek-bones, the light brown or reddish tint of the skin ; of the Negro by the
prominent eyebrows, the flat nose, the thick lips, the prognathous jaws. A
conspicuous mark is formed by the insertion of the nose, so deeply depressed
that a line drawn from one eye to the other describes only a slight curve. In
build they are slim rather than squat ; almost all over the continent it is only in
well-nourished individuals that arms, legs, and often hips are not too fine. Muscular
z
338
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
development is not as a rule strong, but the joints show an astonishing suppleness,
so that the most curious and apparently laborious postures are often adopted
when resting. They find it quite easy to dodge the flight of a spear by an almost
imperceptible movement. It must be observed that too little notice has been
taken in most descriptions of the effects of defective nutrition, so that what is really
a mark of low civilization has been treated as a racial peculiarity. But we look
in vain for any really tangible marks such as a sharply circumscribed race ought
to offer. Some peculiarities are to be referred to the influence of the conditions
of their life, some have been indicated by the most unprejudiced observers as
marks of hybridism, while others, as for instance reports about the hair, are difficult
to bring into any consistency. Whenever the question of the unity of the
Queensland girl. (From a photograph by C. Gunther. )
Australian race has turned up, it has been found impossible to adduce any con-
vincing proofs of it.
We should most naturally expect a solution of this question from careful skull
measurements, but what do these tell us ? The Australian head is one of the
smallest, but within these limits the variations are great. If we rely upon the
twenty-four skulls measured by Davis, and the eighteen measured by Topinard,
the horizontal circumference varies between 19 and 22 inches, and the cubic
contents of the skull between 66 and 88 cubic inches. Davis even records a
measurement of 102 cubic inches. The marked prognathy, the projecting eyebrows,
the depression of the root of the nose, and the retreating forehead, Topinard failed
to notice in five or six skulls out of eighteen. The roof-shaped skull which some
anatomists have noticed as characteristic is anything but universal ; it is absent in
more than half of Topinard's list of skulls. With differences such as these,
Australian skulls would, seem to require classification rather than unification. In
the colour of the skin two extreme types may be distinguished, one quite yellow
and the other black all over. The intermediate or dark brown is the commonest,
but in no way nullifies the diversity of the two extremes. We meet with the
PHYSICAL AND MENTAL CHARACTER OF THE AUSTRALIANS 339
same in the hair ; curly haired Australians have been seen on Murchison Bay, on
the west coast near Port Essington and on the Bogan River ; microscopic observa-
tions further are said to show that there are persons here with completely Negro
hair. But one feature which is unlike Negroes and still more unlike Malays is the
strong growth of hair on the body, particularly in the beard. The taunt applied
to beardless people, " You naked cheeks," is one of the challenges always taken
up by the beardless youth among the South Australians. A hairless Australian
is an isolated pathological accident.
The most important question in these circumstances is that of the geographical
distribution of the various types, and no more positive answer can be obtained to
it than to any other suggestion as to the affinities, differences, and origin of the
Australians. The earliest reports in no way authorise us to see the lighter type
Young Queensland man. (From a photograph by C. Giinther).
on the Malayan side or the darker in the opposite direction. Tasman in 1644,
and Dampier in 1686, found dark, woolly-headed people on the north-west coast ;
and it is no contradiction to this if Grey and Usborne found among them individuals
of a light copper colour, with smaller heads, moderate-sized eyebrows, and well-
proportioned limbs. In 1770 Cook saw in Endeavour Bay, on the north-east
coast, chocolate-brown, straight-haired, well-built men, with noses not strikingly
flat and not very thick lips. Among the aborigines of the south-east there were
women as light as mulattoes. Dumont D'Urville notes certain tribes in the
neighbourhood of King George's Sound as belonging to a more nobly-formed race.
Similarly, Hombron and Flinders establish far-reaching distinctions between
Australians of a higher and subordinate class. Stokes, one of the most experienced
of all Australian travellers, sums up his judgment in the phrase : " The Australians
vary as curiously as their soil." Stuart and Leichhardt are astonished by the
peculiar and capricious differences ; and the discrepancies among the descriptions
of later observers who have been able to study the Australians at their leisure,
though under the influence of Europeans, are no less strongly marked. We need
340
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
only recall here Wilhelmi's study of the Port Lincoln tribes, and Earl's remark,
"A circle of 500 miles round Port Essington would enclose an equal number of
tribes, varying from deep black to the reddish yellow of the Polynesians." This is
enough to justify the assumption of a wide internal difference among the Australian
tribes. Undoubtedly, darker and lighter, woolly-haired and straight-haired are
mixed up together, but where must we look for their origin ? Must we, with
Topinard, speak of Negro and Polynesian, some Malay, and numerous originally
Asiatic elements ?
To the Australian aborigines the scattered and wandering inhabitants of the
Native of New South Wales. (From a photograph. )
small islands which surround the continent also geographically belong. The
Melville islanders, for instance, are genuine Australians, indicated ethnographically
as such by their inferior spears and clubs, their miserable huts and bark canoes.
The Prince of Wales Islands in Torres Straits deserve mention, since their popula-
tion, the Kowraregas, form the extreme northern outposts of the New Hollanders,
and are in immediate contact with the Papuas of Torres Straits. With their passion
for wandering, the Papuas from New Guinea frequently visit these islands, so that
PHYSICAL AND MENTAL CHARACTER OF THE AUSTRALIANS 341
they have a visible ethnographic bearing in that direction. New Guinea, with its
Papuan population, has always provided the most obvious source for the dark races,
and similarly the introduction of the straight-haired race seems in view of their
Polynesian elements as well as the neighbourhood of the Malays and their inter-
course with North-West Australia, to offer no great difficulties ; but since we have
no historical record of such immigrations, nothing but a sharp geographical separa-
tion of the two stocks according to their bodily characteristics could afford any
secure evidence ; we can only regret that this is impossible.
Least of all must we overlook the effect of the modes of living in this land
where strong contrasts in natural characters are so abundant. Much that has been
said about the physical characteristics of the Australians reminds us only too
strongly of the description of Bushmen and Fuegians. Schurmann ascribes a direct
effect to the influence of habitation when he says : " Where the land is desert the
inhabitants are few in number and of miserable appearance ; where the land is good
they are comparatively numerous, good-looking, and active." Besides this he finds
that the stronger individuals are also the lighter-coloured, and here he has especially
the South Australian tribes in his eye. That the women in general make a less
favourable impression than the men must no doubt be ascribed to their more
laborious and burdened existence and to more deficient nourishment. As is usual
among people in the lower stages of culture who live under conditions of poverty,
the Australians are not remarkable for great bodily power ; Europeans are better
runners, jumpers, and pedestrians, but the Australians are dexterous in hurling
spears, and no European has ever beaten them in throwing the boomerang. In
the war of extermination which the colonists have carried on against them they
have continued to place many difficulties in the way of their destroyers by extremely
clever employment of all their forces — even of their colour. Their marches are as
a rule short ; in the acuteness of their senses they surpass inost Europeans ; even
women and children dive and swim well, save only in West Australia, where canoes
and rafts are also absent.
Diseases to which they are particularly liable are, according to Taplin, all those
of a scrofulous nature — phthisis, liver disease, dysentery, and epidemic influenza are
specially frequent ; measles and scarlet fever unusual even when they are rife
among white men in the neighbourhood. Small-pox has caused great destruction
among them, venereal diseases even greater. The frequency of old people is to be
ascribed not so much to longevity as to early senility. The great mortality among
children is to be referred to hereafter.
Half-breeds between whites and Australians have some points of resemblance
with the Negro hybrids known as mulattoes. There is a considerable number of
them in Australia, and their physical strength and dexterity are employed chiefly
in tending the herds ; they are fertile.
One almost shrinks from inquiring, in the case of a people whose conditions
of living are so unpropitious, into those qualities of soul and intellect for the pre-
evolution of which only the most favourable external conditions suffice. In order
to avoid being led astray by the phenomena of a dwindling race, we shall have
to assign more importance to natural disposition than to what has actually arrived
at development. In the disposition of the Australian, through his excessively
nomadic mode of life, an important feature is a want of steadiness. Young
Australians who have enjoyed the best opportunities of leading a tranquil and
342 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
profitable life have suddenly returned to savagery after years of successful educa-
tion, after willingly adapting themselves to a settled life and regular activity, and
in a short time have thrown to the winds all the requirements of civilization. In
handicrafts and in the use of tools they have often been in no way inferior to
white men, but they have lacked the power of concentrating their thoughts upon
definite tasks. People have noticed in the Australians the acuteness of their
senses, the power of imitating voices, an accurate musical ear, — all the results
of a savage life. But the capital invested in this is not very productive ; no
permanent acquisition of culture results from it, — nothing which can secure to a
man a firm grip on Nature. Their soul-depressing misery hangs as a counter-
poise to it, and the Australian stands unquestionably far behind the ideal child
of Nature — the North American Indian. To this the climate contributes ; the
Australian lives under the pressure of a climate particularly untrustworthy
in respect of the moisture which is essential to the production of food. The
oppressive heat of the steppe districts, the inevitable sudden transition to cold at
night, contribute their stupefying effect. For this reason the Australians of the
north are far more awake and intellectually more energetic than those of the
south ; they are, too, of a more stable character, and that says much. If in spite
of this we find more intelligence in the south than we expect, it produces the
impression of fragments from a better condition. " Nothing shows this better
than religion, in which every detail rings like muffled voices from an earlier and
richer time," says Waitz-Gerland. Life under these influences for a long period
has caused much which formerly existed in their natural endowment to slumber.
What stimulating forces are there in a tribe where not more than a couple of
hundred people live together? Europeans have occasionally, though seldom,
through their personal example, trained aborigines into men good for something.
Yet in recent times a more favourable judgment of the Australian character
seems to be in course of formation.
The mission schools show the Australians to be people of moderate endow-
ments. In reading and writing they, as a rule, make good progress, but arith-
metic is less satisfactory ; in many parts the aborigines have no expression for
the higher numbers. According to the missionaries they possess a faculty of
imitation and a retentive memory, but their intelligence is shallow ; everything
with them is mechanical. They can be educated without very great difficulty
in the simpler trades, but preachers and teachers, gifted like some who have been
produced by Africa and Polynesia, are very seldom found among converted
natives. Judged by the missionary standard, the races of Australia may best
be compared with the light South African races.
If all knowledge is fragmentary, that of the Australians is doubly so. They
possess a good deal, but always in fragments, which easily submit to their destiny
of falling into the oblivion natural to all that is lifeless and disconnected. Language
occasionally casts some light upon the mode in which the aborigines look upon
Nature, as when those of Adelaide use a generic term— /«2<:7«fl — for all stinging
animals, or when the Dieyeri have, besides their word for sun, moon, stars, special
terms for the evening star, the milky way, a bright winter star in the northern
sky, two winter stars in the southern sky, a constellation like an eagle's claw
appearing in the west in the winter, falling stars, the rainbow, noon, south
and north, sunrise and sunset ; the myths also deal much with constellations.
PHYSICAL AND MENTAL CHARACTER OF THE AUSTRALIANS 343
They know how to reckon time by the phase of the moon ; like the Polynesians
they divide the sky into eight regions, and name the winds from them. In the
west the year is divided into six seasons ; their capacity for taking their bearings
is extraordinary, their knowledge of locality is so great that at the distance of a
day's journey they can accurately describe the direction in which a point lies,
and no less accurate is their recollection of localities which they have once visited.
Besides these practical acquirements, the intellectual life of the Australians has
very little to show. Taplin took some trouble to collect the traditions current
among the Narrinyeri, which gives a notion of the vacuity of their minds. This
tribe supposes itself, before it came to its present situation, to have wandered
down the Murray and the Darling, and has some recollection of a devastating
sickness which, before the arrival of the Europeans, came in the same direction.
Some remember the terror which Sturt inspired in them when he crossed the
Alexandra lake in his boat ; and the confusion which two oxen, who had strayed
Billy Bull and Emma Dugal, natives of South Australia. {From photographs. )
from the eastward, caused in their camp, people retreating before them as if they
were demons. In 1840 a ship was wrecked, and twenty -five of those who
escaped were murdered by them. The Europeans killed some of them for
punishment. In 1844 they killed a squatter, after which a good deal of friction
ensued with the white police. This is the entire history of one generation of an
Australian tribe.
They scarcely attempt to fix their ideas in writing, yet there is no doubt that
the Australians have made more progress in this art than was believed a few
years ago. The first discovery of message-sticks with picture-writing capable of
affording copious information to a native was made in 1880,^ a further token of
the extremely fragmentary state of ethnographical study in the Australian domain.
These sticks are brought to most perfection in West Australia ; in Queensland
and New South Wales they are rougher. Similarly sentences, possibly exorcisms,
are engraved upon stones which are used at the Corroboree dances, and not only
are objects belonging to external nature represented in this picture-writing, but
' [This is hardly correct. They were known as far back as 1840. Stejotirn. Anthr. Inst, xviii. " Message
slicks."!
344
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
conventional signs are included, lines cut straight and slanting, and the like, so
that it is something more than mere picture-writing. The aborigines are said to
be very clever at writing and reading these primitive hieroglyphics ; message-sticks
of this kind have been conveyed to prisoners in order to inform them of plots
for their release ; they are said also to be despatched when two tribes declare
hostilities. The stick also serves the messenger as a safe conduct, often over
great distances. With them it is not a question of the interpretation of language,
but the representation of ideas. Messages written on sticks are read by persons
belonging to very different tribes, and understood with some explanation on the
part of the messenger. They appear also as plain wooden staves, symbol of the
message which is orally trans-
mitted ; the messenger is inviol-
able. The same object is obtained,
by simpler tokens ; notches in the
smooth bark of trees, a heap of
stones, a bunch of reeds, indicate
the road taken, and inform the
following troop as to the direction.
Smoke and fire signals are fre-
quent ; casting dust into the air
is a sign of war ; on the declaration
of war a stick with emu feathers
is sent. In West Australia,
according to Eyre, a network of
reeds serves for a messenger's
credentials, — a reminiscence of the
once more widely-developed knot-
writing of which Kortiim has given
an example from Cooktown. Rock
drawings certainly come under the
same head ; not only animals, but
men in all positions and attitudes
are represented often in company
with animals, which points to
hunting or fishing. On the upper
Glenelg is a chain of sandstone
, hills with many caverns ; many of
them are pamted, mostly yellowish red. In one was found a drawing of a fish
a yard long ; on the slanting rock roof of another is painted on a black ground
a white figure with yellow eyes and widely puffed-out, curly, red hair, with
regular rows of white dots; the body is not finished, but is clad in a sort of
closely-fittmg coat. On one of the walls near by may be seen four heads, one
above another, with thick, blue, frizzed-out hair, and further up on the roof an
elliptical figure, on which there is a red kangaroo on a golden-yellow ground
stripped with red, and divided by a broad, white, transverse band, together with
two arrow heads, one of which with two bullets is flying towards the animal, the
other away from it ; hard by a man is depicted in rough outline dragging a
Several other, but inferior, pictures of animals and men are found
Message-sticks with picture-writing, from West Australia—
one-third real size. (Berlin Museum. )
red kangaroo.
<
LjJ
o
o
H
CD
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o
o
a:
o t
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PHYSICAL AND MENTAL CHARACTER OP THE AUSTRALIANS 345
close by. Some of these paintings have, perhaps, a religious signification. Gesture
and finger-language is highly developed ; Kempe says that the Central Australian
tribes of the Macdonnell range can express almost anything by the position or
movement of the hands and fingers.
The fundamental features of the Australian language, as Friedrich Miiller
has pointed out, are its polysyllabic formation, with .syllables as a rule beginning
with a consonant and ending with a vowel or liquid. Its affinity with the
languages of Oceania still awaits evidence, so far as concerns the direction of
individual points of relation. The sounds h,f, v, s, z are said to be wholly lacking.
In inflection the suffix predominates. The numbers are singular, dual, plural.
Besides the six usual cases of nouns, Taplin distinguishes in the South Australian
■ language special inflections for the various senses of the ablative — in pronouns
also a ca'usative. The accent is usually on the penultimate. The Australian
loves ellipses. Shortenings of words occur as well as extensions.
From the point of view of their intellectual value, we find in the Australian
languages a great wealth of concrete, contrasted with a dearth of abstract terms.
Numerals seldom run beyond three or five ; anything further is expressed by
compounds. Colour terms are defective ; but terms expressing relationship and
degrees of age are copious. The very indifference of the aborigines makes the
study of the Australian languages difficult. The casual way in which they
speak, and the running of words into each other, the tendency to change the vowels,
all interfere with fixity. New words are readily coined and foreign words adopted.
There are in Australia numerous dialects which are fundamentally identical ; their
multiplicity is more apparent than deep-reaching. Out of a number of synonyms,
one tribe will, by preference, use one to express a given meaning, another another; but
each understands both terms. They have a special word to denote every minutest
portion oT the human body ; so that it is possible for different travellers to ask
the name for a particular member, and get those for different bits of it. Of the
number of the Australian languages and dialects we can only form an estimate.
According to Grey and Bleek there are, in the south, seven languages, all broken
up into a crowd of dialects, since every nomad tribe has its own. Certain
languages have a wider distribution ; one is spoken frpm Moreton Bay to the
Hawkesbury River, one from King George's Sound to Stark Bay and the
Gascoigne River, and far into the interior. The same language with dialectic
variations is found round Adelaide. The natives of the Murray and Murrumbidgee
can understand those of King George's Sound, and similarly the Hunter and
Macquarie languages are radically akin. The languages of the north coast are
also numerous ; five are found in close proximity on Cape York, and four on the
Coburg Peninsula. In the interior, according to Kempe, there is a general com-
munity of language among the tribes within an area marked by 23" and 28° South
latitude, 132° and 134° East longitude, perhaps even further; an area that is of
45,000 to 50,000 square miles.
The following table of the terms for parts of the human body shows the
resemblance between the languages of the south, south-west, and east. The
intervening languages of the interior stand in the same relation to these as these
to one another, so that we have here a widespread similarity, while the North
Australian languages ought possibly to be classed separately, or more nearly
allied to those of New Guinea and the neighbouring islands.
346
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Tribe and place of abode.
Hand.
Mouth.
Tongue.
Eye.
Narrinyei'i
Mari
Tore
Tallanggi
Pili
Adelaide
Marra
Ta
Tadlanya
Mena
Port Lincoln
]Marra
Narpata
Yarli
Mena
Swan River
Marhra
Dta
Dtallang
Mel
Blanchewater (S. Australia) .
Hurra
Tiya
Yarley
Minna
New South Wales, Sydney .
Mutturra
Tullun
Ngaikung
Melbourne . •,
Munung
Myrongatha
Warongatha )
kundernir J
Tallan
Myng
Echuca
Peean
Warroo
Saleng
Maa
Murundi on the Murray
Mannurukoo
Taako munno
Ngantudh
Korllo
Moreton Bay
Yamma
Tambur
Tallaun
MiUo
Wimmera (Victoria)
Mannanyuk
Tyarbuk
Tyalli
Mirr
Wentworth
Muna mambunya
Yelka
Tarlina
Makie
Kamilaroi .
Murra
Tulle
Mil
Dippil (Wide Bay)
Dwruin
Tunka
Dunnum
Mi
The less we can expect to find moral courage among the Australians, the
more must we admire such traces of it as have not been weakened in their
struggle for a wretched existence. Examples are found among them of really
heroic determination and admirable sangfroid ; suicide is unknown among these
barbarians. On the other hand, they show a high degree of self control, which,
in deference to superstition or tradition, they inflict or allow to be inflicted on
themselves. As regards warlike disposition, different tribes vary, but it is seldom
that any one is wholly free from a state of war. Menaces from a distance, and
attacks from ambush, belong to the nature of primitive warfare, but in no way
exclude the possibility of facing death when the moment comes. In West
Australia, to the present day, the names of bold and fierce native leaders, who
fought Europeans for years together, fall with a threatening sound on the ears of
colonists. They were dexterous at covering themselves with their shields, clever
at dodging spears, which they would sometimes catch and contemptuously throw
back, aiming also only at such as covered themselves with their shields ; doubtless,
from apprehension of blood feuds. Thus their fights often lasted for a long time
without any one being wounded ; and, consequently, in fighting among themselves,
they were hardly what we should call brave. In their conflicts with Europeans,
however, they showed real valour, and would often have succeeded had their
numbers been greater.
Singing and dancing being the favourite entertainment of Australians, it is
curious that they are of all races the poorest in musical instruments. They have,
indeed, instruments for beating time, most frequently bamboos, which are struck
with a stick, but even this is not common to all tribes. Most strike with one
stick on another, it may be a throwing stick, holding it against their brea.st, but
also merely upon a skin stretched or only unrolled. Among the West Australians,
indeed, drums of very rough workmanship have been found, but among the South
Australians the only music is that afforded by beating skins and shields. The
Australians of Port Essington have a flute, probably got from the Malays, which
is blown through the nose in the Polynesian style. We may also mention the
hand clapping with which they accompany their songs.
Dances are always accompanied by .songs, the modes of which have in all
PHYSICAL AND MENTAL CHARACTER OF THE AUSTRALIANS 347
cases something melancholy about them. In them all one notices the drop from
a high pitched tone to a lower one. It is not possible .sharply to distinguish
speaking and singing. In times of emotion their speech passes imperceptibly
into song, the time being in accordance with the degree of their passion. Joy,
anger, and, says Grey, even hunger, move them to singing. The simple com-
parisons or contrasts of their songs are, it must be confessed, not without a certain
poetry, but, as in the adornment of their bodies, we trace here the simple and
impoverished character of their fancy. Taplin has noted down a number of
Narrinyeri dance songs ; they consist simply of the description of experiences of
travel, the chase, or war. All Australian songs, which Grey and others have
recorded, are equally primitive in structure and naive in thought, with a tendency
to a final rhyme.
A word should be added about the Corroboree, which is of the nature of a
simple dance with singing, or is modified into a propitiatory or magic dance, or is
held generally to celebrate events of the most various kinds. Generally the men dance
while the women accompany with music and song. In Queensland it is a still more
solemn occasion than in South Australia, and the following customs are observed.
The men pass the day hidden in the thicket, when they have themselves rubbed
with fat by their wives in a manner such as the festive dance deserves, and paint
themselves in a way to strike terror. When it is dark the women light a mighty
fire, begin to beat the drums, and sing a monotonous air. Thereupon the dancers
appear with spears and firebrands in their hands, having their ankles bound
round with bunches of gum-tree leaves. With hideous gestures they begin the
dance, which at last passes into a wild fantastic running and chasing in circles,
or backwards and forwards. From time to time they utter a wild howl and strike
their spears violently together, or dash their torches upon the ground till the sparks
fly far and wide. These dances only take place at night, chiefly at the time of
full moon. The Corroboree often becomes indecent, particularly in the excep-
tional cases when the women share in the dances.
It is impossible to understand the Australians, apart from their extensive
nomadism, to which all the natural qualities of the land contribute. At the
bottom of it lies the deficiency of water, and the unequal distribution of food,
plants, and animals, which partly results from this. The dry season causes a large
number of places otherwise favourable to habitation to be simply im.possible.
But since, owing to the almost total absence of mountains to feed the springs,
permanent drought is no less great than the time and amount of rainfall are incal-
culable, there are few permanent oases, and the arrivals of damp monsoons, few
and far between as they are, are an insufficient check to nomadism. Vegetable
food-stufifs are often to be sought for at great distances, while animals avoid the
dry regions almost as much as men. Thus the lack of mountains and large
rivers over the largest part of the country makes for migration, and if we further
regard its isolated position, the conditions of Australia are as unfavourable as we
can conceive for the development of a settled population. Thus the nomad
tribes of the west go about, the men with their weapons in front, the women with
the baggage and the children in the rear. Their burden is generally increased
by the clothing, since on the march it is pleasant to go naked. Every woman
carries on her back a sack containing a flat stone for crushing eatable roots, pieces
of quartz for knives and spear heads, stones for axes, cakes of gum for mending
34S THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
old weapons or preparing new ones, kangaroo sinews for thread, and needles of
kangaroo bone, opossum hair to make girdles, pieces of kangaroo skin for polishing
the spears, sharp shells to serve as ki)ives and axe heads, yellow and red ochre
for painting, a piece of bark for making bast, ropes, girdles, ornaments of sorts,
tinder for making fire, some fat and a piece of quartz revered as a relic, having
been extracted by the doctor from a sick man as the seat of his sickness, and
besides these, roots or fruits collected on the road. Between back and sack they
carry a store of undressed hides, and in their hand a staff 5 or 6 feet in length, or
a firebrand ; and often are burdened in addition with their husband's spears. Not
more than 16 or 18 miles is, as a rule, done on one of these marches ; and if
indications of game appear on the way, the men go off in pursuit, sending the
women and children under the escort of the elder men direct to the camp
previously fixed upon. The start is not made very early, and as a rule some
urgency on the part of the more active is needed to put an end to the chattering
and dawdling.
The length of stay depends on the quantity of food, water, or other con-
veniences ; but even so they seldom remain in one place longer than a fortnight,
owing to the pressure exerted by other groups. Consequently changes of abode
are usually more frequent in summer than in winter. The huts often remain
when the camp is deserted, which explains the comparative frequency with which
deserted camps appear in narratives. Meetings for the purpose of council or
festivity are another cause of tribal wanderings. Many ceremonies require the
co-operation of several allied tribes. Yet, again, fear of spots where a death has
occurred, and other forms of superstition, are reasons for migration. Considering
the number of children in a family usual in these days, over-population can seldom
be regarded as a motive. Yet we must remember that if other conditions
prevailed in this respect before the contact with Europeans, this must, by reducing
the amount of available food, have created rapid shifting in the possibilities of
obtaining subsistence.
The number of Australians has always been small ; to all appearance larger
in the north and north-east than in the south and west. Since the invasion of
the European, it has decreased year by year — one of the darkest spots in modern
history, and not only in that of Australia. The European immigration has been
of much greater harm than benefit to the aborigines ; their land has been annexed,
their game in great measure extirpated ; the strangers have destroyed the reeds
of which they built their houses, the grass on which they slept ; the skins whereof
they made clothes, the bark which served to build their canoes, are hardly to be
found any longer. We must not therefore, from their present debased condition,
draw conclusions as to what they were originally ; nor can we hope to find among
their enervated and widely scattered tribes the better qualities which they once
possessed. The Bushmen of Africa are perhaps the only race whom the white
men have treated with so little consideration ; and when the Australian ventured
to resent, by force of arms, infringement of their valued rights of property, they
were abused for being quarrelsome. With thoughtless stupidity, England made
Australia a penal colony, and recognised no right on the part of the natives to
their own land. Nowhere was the colonial policy of laissez-aller and laissez-faire
so eariy or so decisively condemned as here ; but it was in vain. The history
of the Australian colonies recounts wanton slaughters en masse of defenceless
DRESS, WEAPONS, AND OTHER BELONGINGS OF THE AUSTRALIANS 349
natives — veritable man hunts, accompanied by licentiousness with its soul and
body-destroying consequences, the importation of spirits, and so forth. The
result has been a steady decrease in the number of aborigines. No trustworthy
estimate of the total number of the Australians exists. Before the European
immigration, we may put them with equal justice at one or at two hundred
thousand. In 185 i, according to an estimate resting in some respects on a firmer
basis, it was attempted to fix the number at S S ,000. The decrease, though
universal, was not everywhere so great as in Victoria, where between 1836 and
1 88 1 the number fell from some 5000 to 770. The census of 1876 gives a
total of 3953 for the colony of South Australia, of whom 1000 were living in
settled districts; if we take the total in 1842 at 12,000, they would have
diminished to a third. In districts which we can more easily check, there
are also evidences of decrease. In 1877, the Narrinyeri of South Australia
numbered 613, and among them Taplin noted for the eight years 1869-1877,
150 births and 162 deaths ; though he tries to mitigate the significance of these
figures by pointing out that people were brought there to die. Yet even so the
proportion is assuredly not encouraging. Among the natives who live more
remote from the Europeans, we must also not overlook the prevalence of infanticide.
If we inquire as to the causes of decrease which continue to operate, we may
in the southern parts practically omit war. Although good relations with the
government were early established in South Australia, the tribes had in 1878 so
dwindled since the appointment of the first governor in 1836, that it was found
difficult to get together a small collection of their weapons. As soon as the
home government recognised the wretched way in which the natives were dying
by sickness, and its own responsibility for this, it took various preventive steps.
Between 1821 and 1842 ;£'8 0,000 was spent in the improvement and protection
of the aborigines ; and almost every British Colonial Minister has considered it
his duty to call upon the Australian government to look after them. Only this
care, even if it could be of much avail under the prevailing system, came too late.
Schools for natives were no doubt founded in Adelaide and other places, and
liberally supported ; but in a few decades these schools became superfluous, for
the Adelaide tribe died out, and its kindred as well. On the other hand, the
mounted police has been constituted the chief organ of government in regard to
the Blacks, and the work of the Protector of the Aborigines has become incon-
siderable. The very discouraging report of the sub-protector in Adelaide for
1875 calls attention to the fact that the smallest birth-rate and the largest death-
rate are always found among the settled tribes. They have been especially thinned
by consumption, measles, and small-pox.
§ 12. DRESS, WEAPONS, AND OTHER BELONGINGS OF
THE AUSTRALIANS
Clothing— Ornament— Painting— Tattooing— Weapons— Throwing-sticks and boomerangs— Huts— Villages—
Canoes— Fishing— Hunting— Preparation of food— Food-stuff-s-Cannibalism— Dearth of water— Traces
of agriculture — Implements and manual skill — Trade.
Little is to be said, so far as matter goes, about the clothing of the Australians ;
but the fact that it is little, or even negative, is in this case interesting, as it shows
35°
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
how inadequately they acted with a view to their own good. In Central and
South Australia the climate is singularly harsh and changeable ; yet we find
Australians totally naked, or wearing only a body-ring, not merely in the tropical
north, but also in the west and south. Even the poorest and most wretched do
not forget to paint their bodies, justifying Martin's remark about the West
Australians : " What they wear is ornament rather than clothing."
The most universal article of clothing among male Australians is a girdle of
plaited grass, bast, or hair, whether of man or some animal. In West Australia
this is often some hundreds of yards in length, reaching as high as the navel.
In many cases it is purely ornamental, but in the north it serves to carry
boomerang, axe, and the like. In Southern Australia the men used to wear
round their bodies a ring made of their own hair, adorned when possible with
emu feathers, drawing it tight, so that it often served as a " soldier's luncheon."
Woman's apron of emu feathers. {Berlin Museum. )
Probably, as in Melanesia and Africa, it also had some hygienic and religious
meaning. Besides this, the cloak of opossum's or dog's skin is widely used.
In the north it is rare, becoming more frequent south of the Arrowsmith river ;
but it is by no means universal, even on the less genial west and south coasts.
In some districts the skins are very carefully prepared, in West Australia the
lighter skins of the kangaroo doe are selected. More general is the kangaroo
skin worn like a sack, in which the women wrap their sucking children ; it is
either knotted round the neck or fastened round the forehead with a cord of
rushes. In the pre-European time no foot or head coverings were possessed by
the Australians.
The universal adornment is painting, by preference with red, white, and black ;
colours with which we frequently meet on shields and other articles. There are
certain distinctions of age and sex, but these are not found throughout. Face,
body, and the chief part of the limbs are covered with this decoration, consisting
on the north-west coast in a vigorous rubbing of the abdomen with red ochre,
sometimes in similar covering of the face, sometimes in a combination, often
tasteful, of dots and lines. The Australians of the south-east used to paint their
bodies in regular circles, squares, and crosses ; some have been disposed to see
DRESS, WEAPONS, AND OTHER BELONGINGS OF THE AUSTRALIANS 351
especially in the red a kind of sacred colour, since corpses are painted with it,
and it is the finery of festive dances ; while among some tribes is only per-
mitted to the elder men, youths powdering their hair with red earth. At times
they twist up their hair with a string, paint the whole thing red, and decorate it
further with emu and cockatoo feathers, the tail of a dog, and such like. White
is among some tribes in the north and west the war colour, in the south it is the
mourning colour ; they also paint and
powder their faces with white in the
dances. In the west and north black
is mourning. They are especially
fond of wearing neck ornaments of
mother-of-pearl, teeth, crabs' claws,
armlets of vegetable fibre, necklaces
made of bits of reed or straw tied to
a cord. The elder men, however, seem
to despise ornament.
The form of tattooing which con-
sists in cicatrisation of the skin is
omitted only by some individual tribes.
As a rule all the elder men of a tribe
are thus scarred, while in certain tribes
the operation has a place among the ceremonies of admission to the class of
elders. The process consists in making a series of long oblique scars in the region
of the breast, also upon the back and shoulders, seldom on the body below the
waist, never on the face. The operation is performed with bits of shell or glass,
and repeated before the wounds are completely healed, until strong cicatrices have
developed.
Weapons are essentially the same throughout Australia, — spear, shield,
Wooden belt, said to be Australian, but perhaps from
the New Hebrides — one-fourth real size. (Berlin
Museum. )
Necklace of kangaroo teeth, probably from West Victoria— one-sixth real size. (Berlin IVIuseum. )
boomerang, axe, and wooden club. The natives of Cape York, and perhaps
some other tribes of the extreme north, are said to carry bows and arrows ;
certainly arrows with bone points are used by the inhabitants of Prince of
Wales Island, but seem from the nature of their ornament to belong to the
domain of Melanesian forms. The weapons are in general simple and coarse,
so that herein the Australians are far inferior to their Polynesian and Malayan
neighbours. Australian weapons are of imperfect finish and poor in ornament,
nor does this arise only from the lack of iron and other metals, which is
shared by the far more artistic Polynesians. They are much nearer to the
South Africans, who also, though possessing iron, are distinguised by the
extremely careless fashion of their weapons. The chief material everywhere
352
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
is wood ; stone and bone are less employed than the lack of metals would lead
one to expect. Finely -polished stone weapons are never to be found in
Australia, while cleverly -chipped flint-heads and blades are rare. In some
districts the natives point their spears with flint and other stones ; even spear-
heads of rock crystal are recorded in Queensland, and of opal in North -West
Australia. They are also provided with barbs ; the setting of them in a
wooden shaft by means of string and gum is also characteristic of Australian
weapons.
First and foremost come the spears. For these, thin stems of eucalyptus six
1
;gs'^'
'■^-ar ,
Wommeras or throwing-sticks of the Australians— one-fifth real size. (Berlin Museum and British Museum.)
feet and more in length are chosen, which are straightened in the fire, slightly
charred, and hardened at the end. This is the simplest form ; the first improve-
ment consists in making a hole for throwing with the help of a throwing-stick.
Besides this the spear-bearer generally has in his sheaf some spears provided with
barbs ; a two-pointed piece of wood is attached by sinews to the spear point in
such a way that its lower end projects barb-wise. These barbs are carried loose
in a pouch until the hunting-ground is reached. Their use in war is prohibited
among the Australians in Port Lincoln. A shorter, thicker spear, as a rule not
more than a yard and a half long, is used for spearing fish. In North Australia
a short light javelin for small game occurs. All the other spears, however, are
hurled with a throwing-stick called wommera or wumera, in South Australia
also midla; this is from 20 to 30 inches in length, smaller in the south than in
the north, consisting in a flat piece of hard wood furnished at one end with a
Wooden spears, mostly from North Australia ; the second and third from the right are fish-spears -
one-fifth real size. (British Museum and Berlin Museum).
2 A
354
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
hook, while at the other end is fastened a lump of resin and a piece of quartz, or
a tuft of opossum's hair, so that it may not slip out of the hand in the act of
throwing. In the royal museum at Leyden there is a cylindrical throwing-stick
probably from North Australia, ornamented at the handle end with a bunch of
fringes made of human hair, the hook at the other end being fastened with the
balsam of Xanthorrhoea. The hook, usually a kangaroo tooth, is laid in the hole
New South Wales men, showing breast soars. (From a photograph. )
on the under side of the spear ; stick and spear are held with the fingers of the
right hand, and the weapon thrown at the level of the eye. The throwing-stick
gives the spear its direction, and by its action as a lever increases the force of the
throw. For convenience the inner side is slightly concave, the outer convex ;
both are frequently ornamented with oblique scratches. The throwing-stick ; is
North Austrahan bow, said to be from Cape York— one- thirteenth real size. (British Museum.)
unknown in some parts of the west, but is still used on the York peninsula.
Other varieties of spears are made from light reed, with a point half a yard long
of hard wood affixed to it, while others are provided with barbs of flint.
The Australian club or waddy is usually a roughly -wrought cudgel, most
nearly akin to the South African kirri. Its thicker end may be flattened into a
four-sided shape, and set with spikes like a " morning star." With some slight
modifications these appear as missile -clubs ; they strike their object with the
handle whirling round the knob, and so form the transition to the boomerang.
To the same class belong the widdis or wirris of the South Australians, made from
DJiESS, WEAPONS, AND OTHER BELONGINGS OF THE AUSTRALIANS 355
eucalyptus stems half a yard in length and about the thickness of a finger, with
knots on one end, and at the other slightly curved in the fashion of a sabre. They
are thrown at small animals, or used at the beginning of a fight before people take
to the spear. The throwing-stick and missile-club or nu//a go, as a rule, together.
A peculiar weapon is the boomerang, called also wagno, keili, and
bomeran. The Australians make it from boughs of the acacia pen-
dula, or from some other tree of similar growth, giving to the green
wood the desired curvature in the fire. As is well known, the boome-
rang when thrown travels forward for some distance, and returns in
an ellipse to within a few
s
.0
paces of the thrower. If
it strikes its mark it falls
to the ground. A skilled
thrower can give the
weapon almost any direc-
tion he likes ; to increase
the force of the stroke
it is hurled so as to touch
the ground with its flat
side, and rise ricochetting
to a considerable height.
The natives are capable
of knocking over birds or
small mammals at 200
paces ; as a weapon of
war it is dangerous, from
the impossibility of judg-
ing at the moment when
it is seen in the air how
it will go or where it will
come down. The most
expert throwers of the
boomerang are considered
to be the tribes on the
Macleay River, and those
on the Shoal River in
New South Wales. The
Stone axes , the thiee above fiom North Austiil a the
lower from Queensland or Victoria— one-sixth real size.
(Berlin Museum.)
genume
boomerang must be bent almost
at a right angle, with something of a twist in the surface, but it
occurs in various forms. In South Australia it is long, thin, and heavy,
and is only thrown at fish. Here it is called wadna, and is closely akin to the
widdi. For warlike purposes it is larger and less curved than for the chase ot
birds or for play. It is chiefly found in the east ; there are various specimens
of it in our museums simply ornamented with scratched lines and anima
figures. In the extreme north the boomerang is not in use, in the south-west
it is little more than a toy. In the bush the Queenslanders use their large
wooden sword, a piece of flat wood which has sharp pieces of stone set with gum
in a groove. ,,
Both in the south and the north the stone axe or /««/^ was once equally
356
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
common. It consisted of a stick to which a stone having either a groove
ground or a hole bored in it was attached by means of gum, sinew, or bast. With
Boomerangs and boomerang-shaped clubs. The stick in the middle is of uncertain use— one-tenth real size.
(British Museum and Berlin Museum. )
this incisions were made in the smooth and strong stems of the trees, which the
natives then climbed with the help of a cord looped round the stem. Polished
DRESS, WEAPONS, AND OTHER BELONGINGS OF THE AUSTRALIANS 2iS7
axes are for the most part not found, but a certain amount of smoothing was
given by rubbing two stone blades together in water. The shields, as shown in
the coloured plate, serve rather to protect the hand and to ward off blows than to
cover the body. Their thickness is much greater than their breadth, and they more-
over have an edge bearing a striking resemblance to the parrying shields used on
the Upper Nile. The monotonous Australian ornament of oblique and serpentine
lines is a characteristic feature of them. The best shields are found in the north,
a broader form occurs in Northern Queensland ; on King George's Sound shields
are not known at all.
The transition from weapon to implement is formed by the digging-stick
Axes of stone or horse-shoe iron from Queensland— one-fifth real size. (British Museum. )
which the South Australians call kiatta, a baton about a yard and a half long and
as thick as the fist. It forms the inseparable companion of the women, who dig
up roots with its thicker end sharpened and hardened in the fire. In the west a
wooden implement like a meat-tray is used as spade, basket, and dish alike.
Considering the nomadic ways of the Australians, their hut-building can only
be imperfect, and for a similar reason it reaches a higher level in the north than in
the south. The tribes on the east coast of Spencer Gulf in summer merely stick
a few wretched boughs in the ground as a protection from - the wind. In winter
they weave huts of a niche shape and cover them at times with bark ; the fire
burns in front of the hut. Just as the family, when encamping after its wandering,
lights a fire the first thing, and does not build its hut till this has been done, so as
358
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
a general rule the fire is the true centre of family life and business. Thus the
South Australians use the word wurlie in the first place for fire, and then in a further
sense for hut or habitation, that is fire-place. These weather-screens are found on
Roebuck Bay, where also frequently a hole is dug in the earth large enough to
hold two men and covered with a screen placed slanting. The worst dwellings
were those of the aborigines of New South Wales, who put up an insufficient wall
of woven work, and that only in wet and cold weather. In pre-European times
^ scarcely any country contained so many cave dwellers as Australia.
On the east coast of Vincent Gulf, however, they have stockaded
houses, and in places where the natives are wont to make a longer
stay on account of periodical abundance of provisions, permanent
huts are erected. In Central Australia, particularly, the great
number of these, together with the quantity of foot-tracks, give the
district the appearance of being more inhabited than it is. In
Eastern and Central Australia their form is that of a pointed roof
resting on the ground, some four yards long by two wide and very
low, woven of boughs covered with eucalyptus bark and open on
one side. In West Australia they have an arched opening about
a yard high, and are so narrow that a man cannot lie at full length
in them. This kind of hut, built hastily indeed but still with some
stability, is used in the interior as well as on the Gulf of Carpen-
taria, on Hanover Bay, and in some other places. They are not
very roomy ; three persons crouching close together can scarcely
find place in them. Similar to these are the huts in Endraghtsland,
where they also lived in caves. The huts stand singly or in little
villages of fifteen and more together, where any natural protection
is found ; on sand-hills or hillocks or in the bush.
In North and North-west Australia we meet with something like
Papuan influence in the size and careful construction of the huts.
Here, where the houses are as high as a man, large enough to hold
ten persons, built of stakes daubed with clay, the village assumes
quite a different position, losing the casual appearance and acquiring
stability, organisation, and fixity. On Rockingham Bay four fire-
places stood in the middle of the village and at one end a hut of
extra size, six yards long, four high, and two wide, in which were
kept the weapons, a curious red-painted shield, swords, fishing-lines,
(British Museum.) ^^^ j^ ^^^^ ^j^^^ ^ V\\\2.gt hall of the Melanesian kind.
The navigation of the Australian peoples is an indication of their isolated and
backward position. A great part of the coast tribes know nothing about it. On
the north-west coast there are only wretched rafts of mangrove branches. Where
there are canoes, that is in the whole southern half of Australia, they are very
imperfect bark canoes with paddles half a yard long. Yet even with these they
are bold and hardy enough to sail several miles out to sea. Near Port Essington
the indigenous canoe is of bark. The bark of the eucalyptus is taken off in broad
and long strips, the strips are laid on the ground, and the sides as well as the ends,
which roll up as they dry, are brought into the desired shape by binding together
with string and weighting with stones. When newly made they are light and
handy, but very soon begin to decay. In northern New South Wales and further
Stone club, said to
be Australian,
possibly from
New Britain.
DRESS, WEAPONS, AND OTHER BELONGINGS OF THE AUSTRALIANS 359
north there are canoes made of tree stems hollowed with fire. In the York
Peninsula, Cook saw boats made of this kind, 1 3 feet long, with outrigger and long
North Australian with spears, axe, and club. (From a photograph. )
flat paddles ; some still longer, even up to 33 feet with double outriggers, are
obtained on the north-west coast by barter for tortoise-shell and trepang. Nothing
is known of the Australians undertaking long journeys in their vessels. Most of
the islands, on the south and east coasts, even those lying as near as Kangaroo
36o
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Island, are uninhabited. The bark canoe, which is the typical Australian craft, is
only adapted for fishing purposes, though perhaps the custom of carrying fire in
these narrow crank boats points to occasionally more protracted absences from
the land.
Except in the north, where Malay influence prevails, fishing with hooks was
originally unknown to the Australians, but they knew the fish spear 4 yards long
with its bone point, many having also nets made of grass or the roots of rushes.
The women chew the material until it becomes supple, and the men weave, using a
stick for needle. In these nets they catch not only fish but also water-fowl, yet all
the coast tribes do not possess nets. The natives of Port Lincoln used to fish in
.shallow water with the hand or with spreading twigs as well as with spears. The
fish were dried and preserved packed in bark ; shell-fish, both salt and fresh water,
were eaten in quantities, but never raw. On the coast of North Australia are
found veritable kitchen-middens.
All mammals are hunted, from the kangaroo to the mouse ; birds from the emu
'^^^^S^s^..
Queensland canoe. (Godeffroy Collection, Leipzig.)
to the smallest wren ; snakes too and other reptiles, the process being to stalk
them to within spear or boomerang throw ; the attention of the animal is distracted
by making a noise in the other direction. Larger animals are also driven, especi-
ally the kangaroo, in winter when the soft ground is tiring to them, fire being
employed to drive the animal towards the hunters. Animals living in holes are
smoked out ; signs are used to avoid making a noise. A spear with a bunch of
feathers stuck upright in the ground indicates concealed game ; the index finger
moved with a jerking motion means kangaroo ; three fingers outstretched, with the
middle one depressed, emu ; outstretched thumbs, opossum ; the whole hand edge
downwards, fish. They prefer not to hunt by moonlight. The dogs are not of
much use, for they can neither track nor retrieve, nor can they follow emu and
kangaroo. The hunters therefore try to reinforce themselves with old traditional
charms, which they mutter quickly when starting in chase of an animal ; only
grown-up men know these. To them also are confided the rules, often cast in
proverbial form, which concern the appointment and use made of the prey when
captured. Among the Port Lincoln tribes full-grown male animals are eaten by
men, female by women, young ones by the young people ; but all alike may
partake of the common kangaroo rat. The wallaby and the two kinds of bandicoot
may not be eaten by women or young people ; in the case of the former they are
prejudicial to the regularity of their functions, while in the latter they make the
DRESS, WEAPONS, AND OTHER BELONGINGS OF THE AUSTRALIANS 361
beard grow of a light colour instead of the favourite black. On the other hand,
lizards promote maturity in girls and snakes make women fruitful. Like so many
other ancestral customs, these have in course of time lost much of their force. The
dogs, which originally were only dingoes, but now are mostly crossed with European
breeds are well treated, the young ones being in case of necessity suckled by the
women ; they are also used for eating. Since Australia was never so rich in game
as North America, and the weapons of the Australians are poor, the chase demands
exertion and privation, and
is the cause of frequent
changes of place which are
prejudicial to civilization ; it
is most laborious, and at the
same time most necessary,
in the hot and dry season,
when the sources of vege-
table nourishment are scanty.
The Australians much
prefer an animal diet, but
are compelled to content
themselves in great measure
with a vegetable one. Being
entirely without pottery, they
have only limited facilities
for preparing food. Boiling
over a fire is unknown :
where vessels for this pur-
pose are found, as in the
extreme north, they are not
indigenous. Pots and cups
made of shells, of skulls
made tight with gum, of
tortoise-shells, will not stand
the fire ; nor will bottles
made from the skins of small
animals. Meat is dressed
by broiling over an open
fire or on embers ; and the
Polynesian fashion of steam-
ing in holes dug in the
ground is also known. On
the Upper Glenelg these holes were circular, and lined with stone ; they were the
common property of the tribe. Fruits and roots were eaten after the meat as
dessert. The Australians are fond of honey from the Banksia and Xantkorrhoea ;
also of the manna-like gum of a species of Eucalyptus, called " peppermmt gum,
from which they make a sweet drink by adding water. Other kinds of eucalyptus
and various plants also yield edible gums. The Australians do not, however, eat
everything indiscriminately, but reject several things eaten by Europeans, as certain
fish, crustaceans, or fungi ; yet they feel no disgust at such things as maggots or
Striking and throwing clubs— one-eighth real size.
(Berlin Museum.)
362
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
rotten eggs, or even the contents of the intestines of animals taken in hunting.
Even among vegetables they use as articles of diet some that we reject for offensive
taste or small nutritious value. Among the Australians of Port Lincoln, Schurmann
saw only one root eaten raw ; all others were roasted in the ashes and peeled. Many
fruits are gathered unripe and roasted ; in South Australia especially karkalla, the
fruit of a sort of cactus, and a bean called rondo. This attracts a crowd of visitors
every year to the sandhills of Sleaford Bay, and gives rise to fights. Food has a
profound influence on the numbers of the population. Children before they have
got most of their teeth are not competent to chew the hard roots and berries, which
to some extent explains the high mortality among them.
As to the luxuries of the Australians we have little information. In many
places no intoxicating
drink was found in
use when Europeans
first came. The only
definite report of any-
thing of the kind is
that given by Braim
in regard to the mead
drunk by the natives
of New South Wales.
It is not certain
whether they wgre ac-
quainted with tobacco
before the arrival of
Europeans. The
mode of smoking in the Cape York district is, however, peculiar enough. A piece
of bamboo 2 or 3 feet long, and as thick as the arm, is filled with tobacco smoke,
and every member of the company takes a whiff in turn ; which reminds us of
the practice mentioned above, as obtaining in New Guinea. There is no doubt
that the aborigines used parts of narcotic plants, whether for chewing, smoking,
or snuiifing, but with the exception of an Eugenia, it is not known what these
were. Schomburgh in 1881 first described a plant — Duboisia pituri — the dried
leaves of which, either smoked or chewed, have properties nearly akin to those of
opium and tobacco, and in their effect stand midway between the two. This
grows in the interior, and forms an important article of trade there. Some tribes
are acquainted with powerful vegetable poison, but the Narrinyeri, knowing of
none such, use the products of putrefaction to poison their weapons.
Cannibalism is practised in Australia from various motives, but is not
universal, and, indeed, is abhorred by some tribes. A chief ground alleged by
the Narrinyeri of the Lower Murray to account for their hatred of the Merkani ^
was that they stole fat people to eat them. A man who had a fat wife never
liked to let her go alone. In the west districts, where Europeans live, cannibalism
has ceased ; but even here cases of it still occur in times when food is scarce.
In Central Australia it exists in its most comprehensive form, the pretext being
deficiency of game. In Queensland, if the Bunya-bunya tree {Araucaria bidwillii
of Hooker) bears an abundance of its floury nuts, the supply is more than the
1 ["Merkani" appears lo be the name applied by the Narrinyeri to all tribes outside their own.]
New South Wales men, showing breast-scars. (From a photograph.)
DUESS, WEAPONS, AND OTHER BELONGINGS OF THE AUSTRALIANS 363
tribe can conSume, and strangers are permitted to share in the feast. When the
native visitors liave lived for some time exclusively on this vegetable diet, they
are said to feel an irresistible craving for meat, and since they dare not kill any
of the local game, they are forced to slaughter one of their own number. But a
more frequent cause of cannibalism is war. It is usual to eat the heart and the
kidney-fat of the slain, with a view to appropriating the enemy's courage. With
a similar object, in the north, you take your foe's head along with you, and eat his
eyes and the meat off his cheeks, after which the skull is tossed about in a frenzied
dance, and finally set up on a stake. The practice among the Australians about
Lakes Albert and Alex-
andra of using human
skulls as drinking - cups,
borders on anthropophagy.
In former times every
woman in those parts had
a vessel of the kind, hol-
lowed out, smoked, and
prepared by herself The
magicians pretend that
they require to eat human
flesh. In Queensland the
men, having previously
painted themselves white,
devour certain portions of
the body of a young
woman or a girl, as a proof Australian bushels of woven grass — one-sixth real size. (British Museum.)
of relationship or attach-
ment. Among the Central Australian tribes bodies are devoured to avoid the
necessity of further mourning. Among the Dieyeri a trial is first held at the
grave, to ascertain who caused the death, after which the flesh is taken off the
bones, distributed, and eaten. This, however, is done according to rule ; only
mothers may eat their children, not fathers. Still less may sons eat their parents.
Water, one of the most precious possessions in this land of drought, is, next to
women, the most frequent cause of quarrels. The art of spring-finding is highly
developed. As a substitute for it, covering the belly with mud is in repute as a
thirst-quenching and cooling process. In accounts of travels in West Australia,
we hear also of wells being sunk.
One can hardly speak of agriculture among the Australians, only traces of it
have been observed. Yams were found in cultivation on the Prince of Wales
Island, in the north-west, and in the interior. Grey, in his journey from Gantheaume
Bay to the Hutt River, came across a stretch of fertile ground more than 3 miles
in breadth, representing a single plantation of warran {dioscored), literally honey-
combed with holes for planting. The prohibition to dig up seed-bearing food-
plants after the flowering is merely the necessary result of ever-imminent famine.
It is a long step from this to their preservation and increase by cultivation.
The life of the Australian native afforded little room for industrial activity,
though the varying distribution of the raw materials gave occasion here and there
for a division of labour. Game abounded about Adelaide, and the tribes of that
3^4
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
part were, accordingly, more expert in the manufacture of rugs and cloaks out of
furs than were those of Port Lincoln. Hereditary dexterity contributed to this.
Within the limits of a single tribe, individual families work at things for which
the raw material is accessible, or other facilities exist, some at mats, some at
weapons, and then barter their manufactures. But most things are made when
and where they are wanted. In individual districts the productions are scanty
and of little variety, and the districts show uncommonly few local peculiarities.
Primitive industries like pottery, polishing stone weapons, everything connected
with agriculture and the breeding of cattle, are altogether absent in Australia.
Opossum rug ; one-eighth real size. (Berlin Museum.)
The process of preparing skins consists of stretching them out, scraping and
rubbing. The skins are sewn together with the tail sinews of the kangaroo, the
holes being first pierced with a sharp-pointed bone. As the skins are not tanned,
the natives are careful to preserve their cloaks from damp. The art of weaving
comes chiefly into play for making nets ; and in this the Australians use a loop
similar to that found in simple fishing-nets with us. In matting they do nothing
remarkable ; but their basket-work is better, sometimes even excellent.
The passion for ornament has never developed in Australia into such an
inducement to trade as among the Africans, with their love of beads and cowries.
Attempts to start a trade in beads with Australians did not result favourably ;
and the lack of native products for exchange contributed to this. The aborigines
had no knowledge how to get at gold, and the trader could obtain slaves in plenty
THE FAMILY AND SOCIETY IN AUSTRALIA 365
nearer home ; so that the chief enticements to foreign commerce were absent.
The small attraction which Australia offered to foreigners was certainly a main
reason for the oblivion into which the discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries fell, as well as for the backward state of the whole country ethnographic-
ally. In the interior some tribes carry on an insignificant trade with each other,
and in the north the natives, employing intervening tribes as intermediaries, barter
ochre for shields and other objects. The most important articles of local manu-
facture that can be named are weapons ; trade is also done in skins for clothing,
and in mats. In West Australia a word exists to denote a market or fair.
§ 13. THE FAMILY AND SOCIETY IN AUSTRALIA
Birth Infanticide — Bringing up and naming of children — Names of the family groups — Kobong — Exogamy —
System of relationship — Inheritance — Position of the woman — Morality — Wedlock — Marriage by capture —
A scene from the daily life of the South Australians — Funeral ceremonies — Native inquests — Tombs and
modes of burial — Weakness of the political organisation — Rights of property in land — Boundaries — Chief-
ship — Family groups — Questions of law — Blood vengeance — Deliberative assemblies — Intercourse between
tribes — State of war — Ngiampe ; Initiation of youths — Narembe ; Initiation of girls.
When a woman feels that her time is approaching she retires from the camp
with some female companions, and all male persons have to keep their distance
from her. After the birth the father is summoned, and at once sets to work to
render service to his wife by lighting a fire, fetching water, and in other similar
ways. A barbarous neglect of the mother and the new-born child on the part
of the husband is by no means the rule ; nor can we refuse either to mothers
or to fathers the credit of tender affection towards their children. If these die
the mothers not unfrequently carry the bodies till they decompose, and afterwards
carry the bones with them in the sack on which they sleep. Fathers may be
seen carefully leading their tired children by the hand or carrying them. A
mother may sometimes have allowed the child which she carried wrapt up in a
piece of bark to starve, to die of cold, or to burn itself in the fire ; the great
infant mortality may offer strong evidence of mistakes in the bringing up and
guarding of the little ones, yet the fact that the period of suckling is extended
over two or three years shows plainly the natural degree of maternal love.
Infanticide was and is very widespread, and in any case the number of births
is out of all proportion to that of the children who survive. Usually the new-
born child is killed immediately after birth by thrusting a stick through the ears
into the skull, after which the little corpse is burnt in the fire, but cases of killing
by throttling, or by a blow from a club, also occur. In 1 860, one-third of all the
children born among the Narrinyeri were killed, every child that was born before
the next elder could walk, all mis-shapen children, one or both of a pair of twins,
at least half the children of white fathers owing to jealousy, female children, and
finally, children of marriages entered into unwillingly. But if it is once decided
that a child is to be kept, the patience with which it is tended is unbounded. In
order to secure its thriving, superstition enjoins that the navel string be placed
round its neck, it is never bathed, but rubbed down with dry sand. As soon as
a boy can walk, his father takes him with him on hunting and fishing expeditions,
366
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
instructs him in all accomplishments, and teaches him the traditions. The only
child s play for the boys is weapon play, especially with the spear. From his
lourteenth or fifteenth year the youth takes part in war and other affrays, and at
New South Wales women and child, (From a photograph. )
drl^fSetT' •""" '" *""" ""^'"^ '° ^'°"'- »= - '^■»"" into «.e
The child receives a name as soon as it can wall^ K„f „^
special occasions,., .. ^e a„ai„„e„. of'r„:„S' 'Tn^Llr^nHir?. i!
THE FAMILY AND SOCIETY IN AUSTRALIA
367
customary to take account of his place among his brothers and sisters, and of his
birthplace. The father and mother also assume new names from the birth of
one child to that of another. The origin of the female dual names is unknown.
In consequence of the custom of never pronouncing the name of a deceased
person, taken together with that of borrowing names from places, local peculiarities,
animals, and events, a death is often followed by a change not only in the names
of all persons bearing the same name with the deceased, but also in geographical
and other appellations. To the proper name is added the tribal name, which is
taken from some animate or inanimate object, and enjoys a wide extension. Over
Queensland girls, one showing "scar-tattooing." (From a photograph.)
a district of West Australia, 400 to 500 miles in breadth, Grey found the same
names. The practice of exchanging names may also contribute to this — friends
call each other brothers and have corresponding mutual obligations. In Wide
Bay the custom was to rub noses while each pronounced the name of a friend,
and therewith the alliance was concluded.
The separate tribes are broken up into a larger or smaller number of groups,
which were expected to abstain from marriage within themselves. For example,
the South Australian tribe of the Narrinyeri is broken up into eighteen groups,
each of which is regarded as a family among whose members marriage is pro-
hibited. Each family group has its totem, known in West Australia as Kobong.
Grey found everywhere an objection to any sort of interference with the Kobong.
If a man finds the animal which forms his cognisance asleep, he will not kill it, and
368
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
in the chase he will certainly allow it to escape. Any one who has a plant for his
Kobong will not pluck it during a definite portion of the year, and under certain
circumstances. The West Australian regards each individual belonging to the
animal or vegetable species in question as his nearest friend, the killing of whom
would be a great crime. An important part of the men's initiation seems to be
concerned with introduction into this system of patron spirits.
The Port-Lincoln tribes are divided into Mattiri and Karraru. No Mattiri
may marry a Mattiri, his wife must belong to the Karraru, and vice versa. Every
child, in addition to his own name, bears that of the maternal group. Here, in
the south, the Kobong also plays a part, though one of less importance ; but it is
never transmitted to a son. On King George's Sound, also, we find two classes
Young Queensland man with " scar-tattooing. " (From a photograph. )
with the same restriction on marriage. About Hermannsburg, the Peake River,
and Charlotte Waters, the division is more complicated, the natives falling into
four sub-groups ; and a similar division is found in West Australia, in the south
of Queensland, and among the Darling tribes. It is doubtless owing to a tribal
fission of this kind that we find on the Dawson two groups named respectively
after the white and black cockatoos ; whence arose the comical misconception
that the West Australians were named after the most important article of their
diet. About the North-west Cape, the Kobong system is said not to be found.
Alleged caste distinctions are almost certainly to be referred to this exoga'iiiic
tribal organisation. It is reported that at Port Essington, besides the division of
the tribe into families, there exists another strict division into three castes.
According to Earl, the first claims descent from the fire, the second from the
soil, while the name of the third means " net-makers," which points to Kobong.
Wilson quotes similar names as existing about Raffles Bay. In spite of their
strict separation these divisions have equal rights and are outwardly quite similar.
Among many tribes no custom is held more sacred than exogamy. The least
trace of blood-relationship is a bar to marriage, and the first question asked in
Melanksian Axes, Clubs, and Hammers.
(i. 2) Clubs from the D'Entrecasteaux Islands. (3-5) Adzes from Kastern New Guinea. (6) Bird's-head Club
from New Caledonia. (7) Clubs from the Mores)Dy Islands. (8-10) Hammers from Western New Guinea.
(11) Club with green-stone disk, from Eastern New Guinea. (12-14) Adzes and axe with blades of iron,
shell, and stone, from the Anchorites and Admiralty Islands. (British Museum.) (i, ■^, 7-14) from the
Christy Collection.
2 B
THE FAMILY AND SOCIETY IN AUSTRALIA
371
courtship refers to this. If the couple unite in spite of it, their union is regarded
as lawless ; and even punished with death, as incest, by the Australians, who in
matters of morality are lax enough. It has also been proposed to refer to an
exogamic origin the Ngia-Ngiampe ceremony, to be mentioned presently, though
this is otherwise explicable. Yet it is a fact that it is employed when there is a
wish to prevent marriage between members of different tribes. But its chief
purpose is no doubt of another kind. It is plain that the number of women,
already insufficient for the many aspirants to marriage, is rendered still more
insufficient by polygamy, wherein
the senior men are preferred to the
disadvantage of their inferiors.
Accordingly, in every family mar-
riageable women have a high
value, as is plainly expressed in
the system of marriage by ex-
change. It is thus the interest of
all men of the same family that no
one of them should marry any of
their own young women, thereby
depriving the rest of the valuable
object to be obtained by an ex-
change. Among the features of
exogamy we naturally find the
custom that the son-in-law shall
not utter the name of his mother-
in-law, nor the daughter-in-law
that of her father-in-law, nor even
use the name in a general mean-
ing, if it has one ; also that persons
united by this affinity shall never
see each other after the betrothal,
or that the future mother-in-law
must keep her face covered in her
son-in-law's presence.
The fact that the rule of exogamy is observed in marriage, but not so strictly
in illicit relations, may be interpreted on the supposition that this institution was
started at a time when marriage was on a firmer footing. In any case its object
is now not always attained.
Connected with this is the strict determination of the degrees of kinship, which
we find also among other exogamous races. Among the Narrinyeri and the
Meru, a man calls his brother's children " son " and " daughter " ; his sister's
children, " nephew " and " niece " ; a woman calls her sister's children " son " and
" daughter," her brother's " nephew " and " niece." A Narrinyeri peculiarity is to
call father and child collectively Retuleng, mother and child Ratuleng ; and to
possess words denoting " a person who has had a loss," in the sense of widow or
widower. Where political development is so feeble as among the Australians,
nothing but this strict organisation of kinship gives social life any stability.
Closely bound up with all this is the right of inheritance through females.
New South Wales woman with " scar-tattooing.'
(From a photograph.)
372 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Family connections, acquired through the mother, are most strictly maintained ;
even blood-feuds pass by the mother, though to this there are exceptions. Among
the Narrinyeri a son inherits his father's property. In the west, every father
divides his land between his sons ; if he has none, his daughters' sons inherit. A
woman can possess no real property. In the south, on the other hand, where the
inherited land always has a name of its own, which the possessor also bears,
women share in the inheritance ; in the north, where the youngest child takes the
largest share, married daughters come in. The widow's position among the
Central Australian tribes is peculiar ; a man may marry again, but a widow becomes
the property of the tribe, — a form of polyandry. The West Australians have
marriage with a brother's widow ; and also the custom that a married woman
may enter into an engagement with an unmarried man, contingent on the death
of her husband.
That the wife should reckon as the absolute property of her husband, so far
that in Adelaide the term for " married man," means " owner of a woman," is not
peculiar to Australia. But we find here a whole number of customs and usages,
tending to drive the wife still further into the background. The pressure of a
life of poverty bears most heavily on the weaker sex. We hear nothing of female
chiefs and Amazon bodyguards as in Africa, though, among the Kurnai, women
seem to take part in consultation. Female magicians, female doctors, sacred
females, are very rare. By taboo laws, which remind us of Polynesia, they may
not eat with the men, and are excluded from all religious functions, and usually
from dances. The list of articles of food which are forbidden to them is long ;
including many fishes, for instance, and all turtles. Only women with child may
eat pigeons ; with all others they disagree. Yet more important perhaps is the fact
that while certain mystic rites exercise a great influence on the life of the men,
the women being incapable of initiation are for that very reason placed on a lower
level, and in many respects are without legal rights. Secret societies stand like a
close aristocracy in the face of the excluded women and children. Even the vow
which among some tribes the boy at his admission to manhood has to take, that
he will abstain from all violence towards the woman, is easily broken among
people of so unruly and incalculable disposition. The Australians share with all
races in whose soul the feeling of magnanimity has not yet awakened to con-
sciousness a hereditary tendency to despise women. The custom in vogue among
the West Australians, by which one old woman undertakes the ofifice of grand-
mother to the tribe, settles quarrels, separates fighters, but also summons to war,
is the only vestige of compensation.
In Central and South Australia great laxity of morals prevails both in and
out of wedlock. European influences and the general process of decadence can
only have tended to increase this, in many cases actually to call it into exist-
ence. No aid is given to morality by the betrothal of girls in childhood, or, as in
West Australia, soon after birth, to men of mature years ; nor by the jealousy
with which they are subsequently watched. This is a safeguard against pro-
fligacy only by making it an infringement of acquired rights ; just as adultery is
punished with death without its being any breach of good behaviour on a man's
part to make over his wife to his brothers. We are told that the aborigines of
Port Lincoln hold the community of wives among brothers to be lawful, while
they regard as disgraceful the loan of a wife to a friend, or the exchange of wives
THE FAMILY AND SOCIETY IN AUSTRALIA 373
between acquaintances for one night, though this is no uncommon occurrence. In
this connection it is significant that while the men use the word Yangara for their
own wives, and Karteti for those to whom as wives of brothers or near relatives
they have a claim, women have only one name for their husband and his brother.
We meet with polygamy wherever women and food are in sufficient abund-
ance. In the fertile north - west, men have been seen with eleven wives ; on
the south-east coast with two. If the burden of existence lies heavy on the
Australian, half of whose life is spent under privations, it falls with double weight
on the wife. Yet, in spite of this, many observers praise the touching fidelity of
the women to their husbands and lords. Wives are a valuable property, which the
elder men try to keep and increase as much as may be, by the purchase of girls or
the exchange of their own daughters for those of their friends. The census of
South Australia for 1876 gave 2203 male natives against 1750 females. Even
among tribes that have never come into contact with Europeans, scarcity of women
occurs ; so that we need not wonder if the capture of women is frequently a cause
of war, or if unfaithfulness on the part of wives is punished with death and
mutilation.
Capture of wives has been designated, with some exaggeration, as the Australian
form of marriage-contract. When a woman is carried off, it is always by something
of the nature of a warlike attack. There are, however, gentler modifications. In
the south-east it is proper for a youth to obtain the assent of a girl from a
neighbouring tribe, and then to elope with her, remaining two nights and a day in
the bush, to escape an imaginary pursuit on the part of her tribe. In New South
Wales the method is rougher. Here the girl, even when agreeable to the marriage,
is always secretly seized and carried off by the bridegroom and his party. This
often resulted in a hot fight, wherein the girl, snatched from side to side, might
easily receive most of the blows. But frequently the fight is a mere pretence ; it
is just a tradition, with which even the women would be sorry to do away. Some-
times the wife is obtained by purchase or exchange, sometimes received in return
for a present. In the two latter cases the arrangement is often made while she is
still a child, or even at the breast. In that case the consent of the female partner
is desired, but in no way necessary. The girl expresses her willingness by lighting
a fire in the husband's hut. The consent of the parents and relatives is thought
much more essential among the Narrinyeri ; a girl who enters into an informal
connection with a man is regarded as a prostitute, the fact that no compensation
is given for her being a blot on her reputation. Before the Narrinyeri had come
much into contact with Europeans, the procedure was this. Marriage took place
at ten or twelve years, and was a pure matter of exchange ; no man could take a
wife who had not one to give. It is the brother more often than the father who
gives the girl away, and receives the gift in return ; but he can sell this right to
another, which brings us near to marriage by purchase. The man who wishes to
marry a girl, approaches the one who has to give her away through an intermediary.
Then the relations on both sides come and encamp at a little distance apart. In
the evening the girls to be married are escorted by torchlight, with the men, into
a large hut ; the relations sit about for a time in silence, then sing and dance
wildly. Next evening the same thing is repeated and the marriage is complete.
If a bride is still very young, her husband restores her for a while to her people ;
and often rubs her with fat to make her grow.
374 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
The only death regarded by the Australians as natural is death in battle.
Their mind cannot put up with the idea of death as a necessity. Every death that
is not brought about by visible violence seems to them the result of magical arts.
These are facilitated by giving the magician something which has been taken from
the person to be acted upon ; and for this reason fragments of food, gnawed bones,
and the like, are carefully burnt. The first funeral ceremony consists in discovering
the enemy who has done the mischief Among the Port Lincoln tribes the nearest
of kin sleeps the first night with his head on the body, in order that in his dreams
some indication of the magician may reach him. On the following day the corpse
is borne out upon a bier, and now the friends of the deceased call out the names
of various persons. At some one of these they say that the body gives a start in
a particular direction and moves towards the criminal. The Adelaide natives
carry the dead on a wheel-shaped bier of branches ; one man in the centre supporting
the body with his head, until the inquest has arrived at a conclusion. Relations
who do not lament sufficiently at the funeral are easily suspected of complicity in
the death. Among other tribes in the south the corpse is laid upon a bier called
" the Knowing One," and questioned. A movement of the bier is regarded as an
affirmative. If it does not move, further questions are asked.
Among the Dieyeri the corpse has its great toes tied together, and is shrouded
in a net. The grave is about 3 feet deep. Three or four men place the body in
this and let it lie on its back for a few minutes. Then three men kneel down and
lay their heads upon it. Then an old man takes a rod in each hand, places himself
before the corpse, strikes the rods together, and questions the dead. The other
men, sitting round in a circle and acting as mouthpieces for the dead man,
denounce some one, upon whom the whole guilt of the death is cast.
/Another way, used widely in the south-east, of detecting the magician, was to
observe the direction in which some insect crawled from the grave. Or one man
would cleverly find footprints leading towards a suspicious person. Among the
Moreton Bay tribes, after the dead man had been eaten, the official sorcerer would
hold up his skin before various persons, and draw conclusions from their demeanour
as to the one responsible. An unnatural death is somewhat discreditable, and
accordingly when the dead man has been swathed in bark, they whisper in his ear
an injunction to say in the next world that he died naturally. The tribes of Cape
York have a way of punishing the guilt of blood, which reminds us of Polynesian
customs. After the funeral feast the chief enters the group of men with the skull,
weapons, and ornaments of the deceased, and so long as the ceremony lasts, he is
allowed even to commit homicide, as the representative of the dead man.
If the reputed slayer belongs to another tribe, the friends of the accused formally
curse the dead man and all his deceased relatives ; thus affording a casus belli.
Before the fight the dead man's tribe raise a loud cry of grief, while the other side
excite them by laughter, mocking dances, and buffooneries. Both sides then revile
each other vigorously ; a few spears are thrown and a slight wound or two given.
Finally the old men declare that honour is satisfied.
The " native inquest," as it is called, is followed by the interment. This takes
place either below or above the surface of the ground, the former method being
more frequent in the southern half of Australia. In the north-west, and on the
shores of Lake Alexandra, Grey and Taplin speak of great sepulchral mounds.
These perhaps go back to a time when the deaths were more numerous ; among
THE FAMILY AND SOCIETY IN AUSTRALIA 375
the Australians of to-day we find only single interments. A fire is first lighted in
the narrow grave, to drive away all hurtful magic, then it is half filled with leaves,
on which the body is laid either stretched out or doubled up. It is then secured
with sticks and covered with leaves and earth. The earth which has been dug
out is heaped up at the head and the foot. Further, the grave is strewn with leaves
or red earth, and a tree-stem is laid upon it, or in many cases a hut built, at the
door of which are placed the broken spears of the dead man. In front are three
posts with carvings and figures, and painted red as a token that vengeance has
been taken for the dead man. On the Pime River a chief's body is placed in a
hollow tree, and the departure of the soul is encouraged by a whirring noise which
the bystanders make. The head lies to the east on King George's Sound, to the
west among the South Australians ; while the West Australian practice varies
with the tribe. Where the body is doubled up, it is tied by the great toes or by
the thumb and one "finger of each hand ; the arms are thrust under the knees and
the head bent over them ; and the corpse is shrouded in a net or a hide. Often
the beard and nails are removed before burial ; the weapons are regularly placed
with the dead.
Among many tribes a thread of cannibalism runs through the burial customs.
The Dieyeri, after the " inquest," cut all the fat from the face, loins, arms, and
stomach, and hand it round to be consumed by the mourners. Macdonald describes
a less savage custom on the Upper Mary River in Queensland. The dead body was
laid between two piles of logs and duly roasted. When the skin was black all over,
the master of the ceremonies drew longitudinal and transverse lines with chalk
upon it, divided it with a knife along the lines from head to foot, separated the
head from the trunk, and cut every limb into pieces. Meantime the rest kept up
a cannibal howling and gave themselves deep wounds with their battle-axes.
Finally the divided portions were not eaten, but buried. The list of customs pre-
ceding or following an interment is in many cases extensive. Painting is frequent ;
also women beat themselves with sticks till the blood flows ; men pull their beards
out. On Encounter Bay the women scrape the earth on which the body has lain
into a heap, holding that the soul has passed into the earth and can only be set
free by scraping it. In many cases the mound is not over the grave but to one
side, the earth which has been thrown up is allowed to lie, and the walls of the
grave, which is furnished with a side-niche, are trodden, in at once over the body.
The graves are often conspicuous, especially by the grave-posts. Peron saw
one on Cape Naturaliste, in front of which was a semicircle of black and a larger
one of white sand, with circles, triangles, and squares, marked by planting rushes
in them. Similarly he saw, on either side of a stream near King George's Sound,
a circular patch about 3 feet in circumference, stuck round with eleven sharp
spears, stained blood-red with gum, the points on either side turned towards
the other. In the south and east graves are open clearings with paths to
them, or conical sandhills surrounded by a circular trench or three rows of semi-
circular benches ; hard by are posts with figures scratched on them. They often
have huts or straw roofs built over them, or they are themselves the huts in which
the corpse reposes. They are also covered with brushwood to keep the ghost
from getting out. Lastly, cases occur of burial in ant heaps. The simplest form
of above-ground burial is when the dead are put into hollow trees. Near Port
Macquarie the corpse is sewn up in bark, and hung to a tree at a height of 10
376 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
feet. Stuart found on a tree near Hawker Creek a child's coffin, prettily carved
in wood to the shape of a canoe, ornamented with narrow incisions at the side,
covered with bark, and bound with string made of grass. In some places
cremation prevails. On Portland Bay hollow trees are burnt with the body in
them ; near Port Macquarie the body is hung up and a fire made below it. The
remains are a hindrance in travelling, and in the hands of an enemy might be
employed for mischievous purposes of magic, so they are afterwards thrown into
the sea. A further variation is to skeletonise the body and preserve the bones.
The aborigines of Cape York take the bones out of the grave after some months,
and lay them in. a common receptacle in some remote forest ; and the Yardaikin
about Somerset take them, after six months' burial, to York Island. But all
bones are not put away. Skulls have a use as drinking vessels ; and the Papuan
fashion of wearing the lower jaw of a slain enemy as a military decoration occurs
as met with on Saibai Island. Mothers carry the bones of dead children with
them in their bundles. In order to promote decomposition the body is exposed
on a platform to sun and rain, just as about Port Moresby the corpse is laid
under a roof, and a woman stays by it till it has decayed. Among the tribes
on the Murray and on Encounter Bay the corpse is flayed, and afterwards
roasted and dried on a frame. The relations crawl into the hut when this takes
place, smear their bodies, and keep up a hideous howling day and night. When
the body is dry they drag it about with them from place to place as a precious
treasure. If they become so many as to be a nuisance, the oldest mummies
are fastened to a piece of wood and hung up in a tree too high for the wild
dogs to reach them. The Central Australian tribes preserve only chiefs or fallen
warriors ; others are merely buried. Names of dead persons are avoided ; people
who bear the same name take another. In Central Australia, also, graves are
made only in places where a camp is never likely to be pitched.
The Australian tribes have not, and never had, advanced to the point of
forming states. Each family group lays claim to a definite tract of land, the
enjoyment of which is either claimed in common or divided among individuals
according to the nature of the produce. The first appears, in common rights of
hunting and fruit-picking, while traces of personal property are so far developed
that single families will assert preferential claims to a spring, a brook, a portion
of forest, and the like. The two rights are determined separately for special cases.
For ordinary hunting all land belongs alike to the community, but when grass has
to be burnt the consent of individual occupants is asked. Even among nomad
tribes certain families have a several right to particular camping-places. A number
of tribes will unite in the common ownership of particular tracts, or in the use of
phonolite quarries for purposes of axe-making.
Against foreign invasion the feeling of joint union is highly developed. The
external boundaries of many tribes are even said to be marked with stones, where
they do not follow the course of mountains or rivers. Whoever crosses them must
bear a message-stick as a token of safe conduct, or in some other way prove his
right to do so. In West Australia, where the tribes from the interior come down
every year to the coast, passage seems only to be allowed them for that purpose.
The Australians cannot at all understand being treated as landless men, hence the
apparently unprovoked attacks upon exploring parties of whites.
THE FAMILY AND SOCIETY IN AUSTRALIA 377
The actual differences between tribes as regards power, culture, or consideration,
are small. Some, however, gain influence from the reputation of having powerful
magicians at command, others, like the Cockatoos of South Australia with their
boomerangs, from fame of their stronger weapons. Little individuality is stamped
upon some populations by their names. The simple name " Men " is often found ;
thus the South Australians between 23° and 28° South, 132" and 134° East, are
called nothing but " Erilla." The name " Narrinyeri," too, according to Taplin,
denotes merely " belonging to mankind." Family groups take local names, or are
called after the group-symbol.
Nature being for the most part unpropitious, renders dispersion compulsory ;
but, at the same time, knits the bonds of the family group closer. This favours
a high degree of isolation, which imparts to the life of a community a republican
or quasi-federative character. Every family group has its elective chief or Rupulle,
who in all contentions conducts the proceedings as speaker. He had originally
to live on the hunting-ground and break up the game. Generally he is the eldest,
strongest, or most expert ; but a bully is sometimes elected. The chief has a
council of the oldest men, called by the Narrinyeri Tendi. His seat in this is
called the judgment-seat, and his chief duty is to pass sentence for every kind of
transgression. If the tendis of two tribes hold a joint meeting, the circle is often
composed of hundreds from one and the other. Europeans have to give leave to
their servants, even in the midst of important work, in order that they may attend
a meeting of this kind either as judges, witnesses, or spectators. In the reports
of travellers mention is even made of " princes," as among the Yaribandemi on
Macleay River. But since the chiefship is a post giving little pre-eminence, it
often happens, on the other hand, that it is entirely lacking ; according to
Schiirmann, the Port Lincoln aborigines have neither a chief nor any person of
recognised authority. Among others a certain influence is exercised by the oldest,
strongest, and bravest, also by magicians.
If a native murder a member of another tribe, his life is forfeited to that tribe.
The friends of the slain man demand his surrender, and he is speared to death.
Then they bury two staves of a span long, one to represent the slayer, one the
slain, and the deed is expiated. If the slayer dies before vengeance has been
taken, or succeeds in escaping punishment, his nearest of kin has to bear the
penalty. For lesser offences it suffices to run a spear, when occasion serves,
through the leg or arm of the culprit. Among the Dieyeri the arbitrament of
arms is called for even in cases of theft or slander. Other penalties, as for
manslaughter, are banishment from the tribe, or compulsory withdrawal to the
maternal kindred. For small trespasses stripes are commonly inflicted, increasing
in severity, as we go south, to the point of beating with a club about the head.
But they are glad to alleviate severe penalties by a touch of formality ; thus in
the case of spearing, the culprit is furnished with a shield, and permitted to use it
to keep himself uninjured.
If a blood-feud has to be set on foot, it is quickly announced by means of loud
cries, from the tone of which the degree of the crime can be judged even a long
way off. The very children know if they are in danger by reason, of their kinship
to the guilty person. But there are offences which are left to be dealt with by
the gods. A man who eats a grub out of his neighbour's tree falls ill ; if he wishes
to avert this, and private vengeance as well, he sticks a bough in the ground by
378 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
the tree. Among the Narrinyeri a refined form of revenge called neilyerie was
introduced a generation ago from the Upper Murray. The person seeking revenge
inserts the end of a spear or a sharp piece of bone into the flesh of a decaying
corpse, and lets it stay there for some weeks. Then he anoints a bunch of hair
with the fat of a corpse, wraps it round the point of his dagger-like neilyerie, and
thus by a single prick can inoculate his enemy with the cadaveric poison.
The natural conditions of the land, unfavourable as they are to communities
of any size or permanence, the difficulty of obtaining food — in short, the hard
struggle for existence, renders more acute the distrust between man and man, tribe
and tribe. Belief in ghosts aids to produce this result. Even the return of
acquaintances calls forth no signs of joy ; it is some time before unrestrained con-
versation takes place. Strangers are thought to bring illness ; but if they are
once received they are perfectly safe. Among the Dieyeri, if a man of rank
appears the warriors go to meet him and make as though they would drive him
off. But he too brandishes his weapons ; both parties parry with their shields ; he
is embraced and brought into the camp to be entertained. Greeting is indicated
by rubbing the breast, leave-taking by extending the hands and raising them to
the head.
We hear of mutual visits, of hospitalities, of reunions for the purpose of decid-
ing contested points, or for trade, or at the initiation of the youths. Intercourse
by messengers is conducted according to definite rules. Among the South
Australians it is the women who carry overtures for peace ; if the women of the
opposing side return the visit the quarrel is regarded as at an end. The institution
of ngia-ngiampe throws a light upon the extent to which any intercourse between
one tribe and another is conceived of as an important occasion. The navel-string
of a child, tied up with a bunch of feathers, is presented to the father of a child of
similar age in another tribe. The two children are thenceforth ngia-ngiampe to
each other ; they must have no contact nor speech with each other, but when
grown-up they act as agents in the barter-trade. The perforation of the nasal
septum is also connected with the precautions for security in dealings with neigh-
bouring tribes. The father of the child suggests the operation, which is performed
at noon by an old man to the accompaniment of chanting. While the wound is
healing the boy executes the commission he has to do, and henceforth he is regarded
as sacred, and is honoured.
A deep insight into the Australian mind is afforded by the long list of initia-
tions, which accompany the passage of boys and girls to the age of maturity.
With this is combined some sacrifice of a part of the body, whether by the knocking
out of teeth or the amputation of a finger. Besides these we find the infliction of
pain by blows, scarring, fasting, or compulsory seclusion ; everything being referred
to divine institution. In the interior, boys creep with blindfolded eyes by a long
passage into the circular enclosure called bora, and for a week after the festival
have to look downwards. Among the Boyne River tribes candidates have to keep
a strict fast for three weeks before the festival in a square enclosure within the
forest. About Cape York circumcision and the knocking out of a tooth are followed
by a month in the bush ; the youthful novices being painted white, and forbidden
to be looked upon by any woman on pain of death. After this they return to their
parents wearing a piece of white shell as a frontlet, and keep on their festival adorn-
ments so long as they hold together. The Narrinyeri do not allow a boy from his
THE FAMILY AND SOCIETY IN AUSTRALIA
379
body-
is
tenth year to comb or cut his hair, nor to partake of the thirteen kinds of game
that are most easily procurable and most nutritious. Tattooing is often undergone
at an early age ; among the Encounter Bay tribes by boys of ten years old
When the time for it is come they are seized without warning by the men at
night, and dragged off to a distant place ; the women meantime making a show
of vigorous opposition, and throwing fire-brands. All the hair on the
plucked out or singed off, the
hair of the head is combed
with a spear, and the body
smeared with oil and ruddle.
After fasting and watching for
three days and nights they
are allowed to eat and sleep ;
but they must lay their heads
across sticks stuck in the
ground, drink only through a
rush, and abstain from all
foods that are permitted to
women. They remain in this
condition, as narumbe until
their beards have grown three
times. They are forbidden
to take a wife, but may go
after any girl of their own age.
Formerly death was the
penalty for a breach of these
rules; and it is still firmly
believed that their infraction
will be punished by growing
up ugly and by premature
grey hairs. The original object
of these laws was perhaps to
toughen the men by means
of pain and fatigue ; but now
they certainly have the con-
trary effect, and the health
of the young men is often
completely undermined by
them.
Australian magic-sticks. (Vienna Museum.)
But besides the hardening process, there is a deeper meaning in these ceremonies,
io begin with, they serve to remove the boy from the women ; which accounts
for the care, amounting to pedantry, that is taken to exclude women from the
initiatory rites. The instrument, resembling the "bull-roarer" of English boys
(of which a representation will be found on a later page), which serves to indicate
that sacred business is going on in the neighbourhood, may not be looked upon
or touched by women and children. Similarly women may never, and lads not
till after their last tattooing, behold the sacred quartz implement used for that
purpose. The meaning of some initiations is quite obscure to us ; as for instance
38o THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
one described by Wyatt, in which an Adelaide native opened one of his own
veins, after previously tying it with a string of human hair, and sprinkled the
back, head, and breast of the boys with blood, which was allowed to " dry on.''
This took place in a remote spot amid profound silence. Among certain tribes
tattooing, by the manner of its execution, becomes of the nature of an initiatory
rite, though its primary object was to give greater suppleness to the arms. The
patient keeps away for some months from female society ; wears rings of opossum-
skin on both upper arms, and carries two sticks polished by long use.
Circumcision is so universal that to call a man " uncircumcised " is an insult.
The nearest of kin arrange for and perform the operation. The boy makes as
though he would fly. He is caught, laid on the ground, rubbed with dust, and
lifted by the ears with loud yells, to rouse him from any spell that may have been
cast upon him. Other mutilations are practised in West and Central Australia,
it is supposed with the view of reducing the power of procreation ; but it is
uncertain if they have this effect.
In the case of girls also, the passage from childhood to womanhood is celebrated
with initiatory rites and sacrifices. They are secluded and have to fast and undergo
painting. Among the Larrakia of North Australia the girls on the approach of
maturity are swathed in bark and kept in a hut for three weeks before the ceremony.
Women have the top joint of the right forefinger cut off ; and, in commemoration
of special events, have teeth knocked out or a finger amputated. Cicatrisation
in them involves a smaller portion of the body than in men.
§ 14. THE TASMANIANS
Physical resemblance to the Melanesians — Dress — Dwellings— Navigation — Weapons — Funeral customs-
Superstition — Extinction of the race.
Tasmania or Van Diemen's Land was formerly deemed to be a portion of Australia,
and therefore the natives of these two regions were regarded as in all essentials
conformable. But this is not entirely the case. There can be no doubt that
both are on an equally low level of culture ; but a distinction is evident in the
bodily characteristics, wherein the Tasmanians showed an approach to the
Papuan type.
The bodily appearance of the Tasmanians appeared at one time to experi-
enced observers far from miserable. Cook describes them as for the most part
slim, of average stature, woolly-haired like the aborigines of New Guinea, but
without the flat noses and thick lips ; their features very far from disagreeable.
The children were even pretty, the women at least not repellent. The accurate
description which Cook's surgeon, Anderson, has given of the natives of Adventure
Bay has in its main points been confirmed by the best observers. The colour of
their skin was a blackish grey, not so dark as that of the Africans ; their hair was
woolly arid divided into tufts like that of the Hottentots' ; the nose full and broad
but not flat ; the eyes of medium size, the expression of them not remarkably
lively or sharp, but open and frank ; the mouth wide, and surrounded by a thick
beard smeared with grease and ruddle. Their build was in general well-propor-
THE TASMANIANS
381
tioned, though the belly was rather strongly prominent ; in some degree owing to
their favourite attitude with the upper part of the body thrown backward, and one
hand across the back grasping the other arm as it hung.
Cook and Anderson found the Tasmanians in a state of absolute nudity.
For ornament narrow strips of hide were wound several times round the neck, like
string, or pieces of hide wrapped round the ankles. The women had a kangaroo
skin in its natural condition tied round the back and loins, but only for carrying
the children on their backs, it did not cover the lower part of the body. When
travelling they also wore mocassins which were not found among the Australians.
Beside the scars on the body, as in the men, the women had their whole head
4 ) T A-.l ^^fJLa^
William Lanney, the last Tasmanian. (From a photograph. )
shaven, or at least a tonsure. The painting of the body and the powdering of
the hair, which was worn by the men stiffly frizzed with red dust, are spoken of ;
also the anointing with fat and adornment with strings of shells. Red feathers
were popular, beads and coins were accepted with satisfaction, iron was not
highly valued. The dwellings of the Tasmanians consisted of wretched huts.
The huts showed great variety ; this want of a definite type may always be
regarded as a sign of low development. There were also huts built in a hemi-
spherical shape of stems and woven boughs, temporary tents, wind screens made
of boughs, or grass piled up upon poles but no real villages ; the bark huts were
mostly placed on accessible points of the coast, in their neighbourhood were great
heaps of shells.
The Tasmanians are more closely connected with the true Australians in
the degree of culture possessed by them than anthropologically. One piece of
382
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
furniture which they had and the Austrahans had not was the head -cushion of
skin. In spite of the climate they were no more of agriculturists than the
Australians, but their shores and their forests provided flesh food in abundance.
Their greater energy resulted from their better nourishment. They seem to
have cooked, like the Australians, with hot stones. Their canoes were merely
broad raft -like vessels made of bark or strong reeds. Accordingly they never
ventured far out to sea, nor had they always paddles to propel their boats,
often using only spears ; they could however swim and dive well. They lived by
preference on shell -fish ; their weapons differed materially from those of the
Australians ; they had no boomerangs, throwing- sticks, or bows and arrows.
Truganina, the last Tasmanian woman. (From a photograph. )
They chiefly used long wooden spears, a sharpened missile stick half a yard
long, wooden clubs, and for chopping and cutting rudely chipped flakes of
stone. They lived almost constantly in a state of war, but they were not
man-eaters, and they treated their women better than did the Australians. The
6000 or 8000 estimated inhabitants of the pre-European time were divided into
numerous tribes. Their modes of burial remind us of Australia, and also the
manifold ways even in this limited space of burning, of cremation, burial, putting
away in hollow trees, building dead huts over the grave. The Tasmanian
character displayed itself to this whites as in the main cheerful and good
humoured ; their mental endowments were tolerable. Too late was education
allowed to spread among the remains of this unhappy race, and too - late was
it recognised that, as was expressed by Mr. A. R. Wallace, we had here to do with
a race having dispositions towards progress to which civilization gave no time
to bring its dispositions to perfection.
THE RELIGION OF THE AUSTRALIANS 383
The 5000 aborigines living in Tasmania in 181 5 had fallen to 16 by i860.
In order to atone to the remainder for the injustice that had been done them, the
small band was assembled at Oyster Cove, on the east side of the island, and
placed under the care of a protector of the aborigines, and provided with all
necessaries of life. But by 1876 the Tasmanian stock became extinct in the
woman whose portrait is given on the preceding page.
§ IS. RELIGION OF THE AUSTRALIANS
Indistinctness of religious conceptions — Attempts at cosmogony — The creative god — Gods of the stars —
Secondary creators — Gods who return to Heaven — Beast legends — Life after death— Ghosts— Other
superstitions — Magicians — Sacred stones and wood — Plongge — Magicians and physicians — Changes in
religious matters.
The religious conceptions of the Australians give the impression of decadence and
corruption. There is a sound about them not only as of an earlier time but as from
foreign regions, confused indeed and indistinct, but with a ring of Melanesian and
Polynesian tradition. Some say that they have heard talk of a supreme being,
the giver of good, in the north under the name Koyan, in the south under that of
Nurundere and Baiamai, but we can attach no great weight to this. In these
rudimentary mythologies the supreme god is, as a rule, the one to whom the
creation of the world is ascribed without his being self-created, and who was from
the beginning in heaven before the hero gods existed. Such appears to be the
Momaincherclu of the Adelaide tribes. The second god, Monana, ascended to
heaven only later by means of spears thrown up one after another ; to him the
creation of man was ascribed. Among the West Australians we meet with a
certain Motogon as creator who produces the earth by calling and blowing. In
South Australia Barim forms the world by drawing the plan of it instead of by
speaking. We are reminded of him by the name of Boorambin, the son of the
South Australian Baiamai. Also the Dieyeri legend that the moon created the
world at the request of their head god Moora-moora, points to the notion of a
second creator other than the chief deity.
The chief distinction between Australian and Polynesian mythology is that
the former does not grow up from its root in cosmogony to any fixed genealogy,
any recognised history, any cycle of divine legends. We do indeed meet with
attempts in this direction, but they have made no progress. The Dieyeri refer
the origin of the sun to man's need of hunting the emu ; they used to pray in
their dances that Moora-moora would cast heat upon the earth, and so he created
the sun. The aborigines of Encounter Bay say that the sun passes every evening
through spirits in long double rank, who implore his favour. Whoever obtains it
bestows upon him the skin of a red kangaroo, and that is the reason why he
returns in red robes. The same thoughtful people make the moon grow thin by
reason of her long stay in the company of man ; the supreme being has her driven
away, she conceals herself, and meantime obtains new strength by eating roots.
The South Australians regard the moon as the sun's husband, and say that the
wife kills the husband at every new moon ; and both here and in West Australia
3S4 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
it is believed that the two once lived on earth and produced children. Similar
human traits are recounted of the stars.
Other legends contain traces of other deities, and of contact with Polynesian
myths. Many districts received their names from Nganno, who then changed
himself into a sea monster. He is, perhaps, the same who came from heaven as
Uandu, and made the Murray River. Narrundere created the fishes in the pond
of Tulurung by throwing stones in, and fished up the rocky islands called Witung-
enggui with a net ; thunder is the voice of his anger, which bellows from the
rainbow. In this connection of earth with heaven there is a distinct Polynesian
ring.
From the fundamental idea that the souls of the departed go to the stars, or
become stars, myths sprang up, bringing spiritual beings into connection with the
stars. Thus it is believed in New South Wales that souls continue to live in the
clouds, in the south that they become stars. The construction of constellations
is an easy result from the belief of the Encounter Bay natives that the souls up
above leave their huts in the evening and go about their business as they formerly
did on earth. The Milky Way, for example, appears as a stream or a row of
huts, where the tribes profess to be able plainly to recognise the ash-heaps and
the ascending smoke. Falling stars are the children of the stars ; the rainbow, in
which the Adelaide tribes distinguish the outer and inner bows as male and
female, rises from the clouds as smoke. The moon is counted a good star, the
sun a bad one, and accordingly the power over evil of many kinds is ascribed to
the sun and its brethren. One who wishes to be healed spits in his hand and
stretches it towards the sun.
Among the Kamilaroi Baiamai appears as the creator of men. He made
the first man as he rested on a rock between the streams, and then disappeared.
This myth resembles that of the creation of man in the falls of the Moraby ; the
nucleus of it is his origin from the water. After man had been made the god
sent his daughter Karakarak to kill the serpents ; she had a stick which in
breaking produced fire. In the north-west, also, the creation of fire was connected
with a fire-god, but he was worshipped there, not in the person of the daughter of
the god of heaven, but beside her. Among many tribes the lizard comes into the
legend of the creation of man. We hear of Tarrotarre, a god in the shape of a
lizard, who divided the sexes and created man and woman. The spirit cut off one
lizard's tail, and the lizard went upright. Then he made them male and female
that they might reproduce their species. This is the belief of the Dieyeri.
In other ways, also, the human and the animal world are variously inter-
mingled in the legends of creation, and this is connected with the Kobong or
tribal cognisance. When the dancing ancestors of the Narrinyeri were making
the hills and pools of Mutabarringa the strong Kondole was invited, and as he
concealed his fire he was wounded by Rilballe in the neck with a spear ; they all
laughed, and were accordingly changed into animals, while Rilballe placed the fire
in the grasS-tree. The creation of a number of fish from the bits, into which with
the help of his hunting companions he had torn a big fish, is related of the same
deity. He produced a species of flat fish by throwing a flat stone into a pond.
Everywhere it is imagined that a more powerful race was first created. To
Wyungaree, the hunting companion of Nurrundaree, is ascribed the creation of
small kangaroos by tearing up and strewing abroad the fragments of a giant
Australian Shields.
2 C
RELIGION OF THE AUSTRALIANS 387
kangaroo, and corresponding to this the gods and heroes were, as may be supposed,
of the nature of giants. To these creative legends are attached a ^\'hole list of
smaller beast legends, of which the wish to interpret striking properties was the
ostensible parent. But these, too, are at bottom mythological. In South Australia
it is related that the tortoise originally had poisoned fangs, and the snake none ;
so the snake asked the tortoise to give her its fangs, as she could make a better
use of them. The tortoise exchanged its fangs for the snake's head, so snakes
have poisoned fangs, and tortoises have snakes' heads. The Narrinyeri mj-th
about the origin of rain is original, and seems to be a weakened form of a deluge
legend. An old man lived with two younger friends ; one day these, having made
a good catch of fish, took the best for themselves, and set aside those of inferior
quality for the old man. He went straightway into his hut and shut-to the door,
and at once it began to rain hard. He remained dry, while they for punishment
were wetted through. Afterwards all three were changed into birds, and when the
old one screams it is a sign of approaching rain.
A common feature is the return of a god to heaven after accomplishing great
things, and also suffering ill-treatment on earth ; frequently he has grown old as
well. Thus the Narrinyeri relate that when Nurrundaree, after destroying his
fugitive wives by a flood — other legends speak of a metamorphosis into rocks —
had returned in bad temper, as an aged man, to the far west, he found one of
his children left behind. To him he threw the end of a rope attached to his staff,
and pulled him up. Since that time, whenever a man dies, the god's son throws
him this rope. When the dead persons reach the half-unconscious ancient, their
dwelling-place is assigned to them, they become alive, young, and sound again,
and receive wives according to the number of the tears, which show how many
they left on earth. Just as with the Oceanians, the creation of gods comes about
by the immediate promotion of the souls of mortals. Taplin's informants professed
to recognise in Nurrundaree merely the apotheosis of a chief who had led their tribe
to its present place of abode. The deity Bedall seems to stand quite alone. Of
him it is said in Queensland, Bedall brooded over the clay, and made the world
like a tortoise. But is not this tranquil god connected with him of Moreton Bay ?
There Buddai or Budja, the progenitor, lies sleeping, an old man, with his head on
his arm, and that buried in the sand ; and as at his former waking the earth was
inundated, so at his next he will swallow mankind.
Gods are changed into beasts, or appear at whiles in beast form. Turramullam
appears in company as a snake ; Uokol is a demon who lives in the water as a
gigantic serpent ; and Tarada, who taught scar-tattooing, was changed into a mighty
kangaroo. A large number of demons, and especially the dreaded Melapi, appear
as birds of the nature of vampires. Besides these there are a number of utterly
absurd beast-legends. If a boy tickles a dog till it coughs, the dog becomes the
boy, and the boy a panpandi tree. If you kill the fly tcnkeiideli without uttering
the name, you will never swim again. And many more of the same kind.
If, as we have seen, the funeral customs of the Australians point strongly to
a belief in a life after death, allusions to the same are not lacking in their world
of religious legend. Soul-myths are intimately entwined with their whole myth-
ology. We find even indications of a belief which makes a distinction between
the shade or ghost, and the vapour which rises, or thought. To the souls of
children also a future life is assigned, even by tribes who only mourn a short time
3S8 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
for their children. Most frequently the idea is anthropomorphic, with echoes from
the migration of souls. Thus, in the west, it is held that the souls of the departed
sit in trees and lament, but can be charmed down, and pass completely into other
living beings. The souls of ancestors are imagined as in relations of active help-
fulness, and reckon as beneficent spirits ; if a whale comes ashore it is their doing.
Bad spirits also spring from the deceased, or the cunning and spiteful Mani ; just
as apparitions of ghosts are frequent near graves, and the dead give harmful stones
to the sorcerers for witchcraft.
The Australians of Wellington say that white angels, or balumbal, live on
honey in the western mountains. This is interpreted of souls, and recalls how, as
with the Polynesians, many tribes place an island of souls in the west, or assume
a connection between water and the next world. The souls of the good go to the
good gods, those of the evil perish. The belief in a judgment-seat placed in
heaven seems to have existed among the Narrinyeri from pre-Christian times.
Schurmann came across the idea of Hades in the form of a spacious canoe, where,
quite in Polynesian fashion, ancestral souls lived. Perhaps the consecration of
certain localities is connected with the belief in abodes of souls. The widely-
spread notion that the dead become white men, and return as such, is met with
here also ; indeed the natives have in fact greeted certain whites as departed
friends.
There is a vast multitude of evil spirits, and the same was the case in
Tasmania ; the Bunyip haunts the forest as a spectre, Kupir comes out of caves
to steal, Arlak throttles people in the dark, Pukidni goes with them as an
invisible companion. Like the Malayan witches, demons fly silently through the
night air, but Mani approaches noisily, seizes the hair and beard and strangles the
man. Club-bearing giants are dreaded in the south ; on the occasion of a fine
aurora australis in March 1 8 8 1 , Coues's Queenslanders were in a state of great
consternation because they took it for the angry flames of the malignant Coochie.
In the belief of the West Australians, a winged serpent lives at the bottom of the
water, causing sickness and ulcers. For this reason a great part of Australian
conduct is dependent on rules for carrying on the fight with the creatures of their
uneasy fancies, and the chief task of the medicine-men lies in appeasing or combating
these. There exist most fantastic tales of alleged fights with evil spirits and
the like ; who could venture to doubt them ? Europeans who have lived with
Australians have more than once been awakened by them in order to take part in
their night watch against ghosts.
The Australian sorcerers are usually elderly men possessing some acquaintance
with medicine, and accurate knowledge of the traditions relating to the discovery
of persons who have caused deaths, to funeral initiations and conjurations. Bright
transparent stones are sacred amulets which the priests alone may touch or
investigate. It is believed that the sorcerers have a stone or bone in their stomach
from which they secretly import splinters into the veins of those upon whom they
work their art, and for this reason the cure of diseases consists chiefly in the
extraction of these stones. This magic stone or bone is introduced into the
sorcerer by means of a visit paid to the spirit-world whither they are transported
in an ecstasy, or else by passing a night in a fresh grave. Besides this the
sorcerers do a great deal with sacred wood which they obtain with incantations
from a tree supposed to possess gifts of healing or consecration. Among the
RELIGION OF THE AUSTRAUANS
Dieyeri, all the sacred operations in which wood is required, such as knocking
out the teeth or perforating the nasal septum, are performed with sticks of the
kayamurra acacia. From this all magic wands are prepared, especially the
knotted stick called plongge, by touching with which the breast of a sleeping man
he may be caused to fall ill. For keeping the women away from the initiation of
lads, a " bull-roarer " some ten inches
long, with its string made of twisted
human hair, is whirled by the boys
so as to cause a humming roar. It
is also used in hunting, in order with
its sound to drive up an abundant
■prey. Ancestral figures seem to occur
seldom amongst the Australians, nor,
indeed, are representations of the
human figure at all frequently found.
There are, however, things which
remind us of these and of fetishes,
such as stones i8 inches long and
covered with bark which Flinders
found on the Sir Edward Pellew
Islands in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
In South Australia the mokani, a
stone wedge fastened between two
pieces of wood as handles, is said to
bewitch people — men by touching
them with the sharp end, women with
the blunt end.
The strongest magic resides in
certain parts of the human body or
in the remains of human food. Every
blackfellow tries to obtain, for pur-
poses of magic, the bones and the
back-bones of certain birds and fishes
of which some one has consumed the
flesh. By means of these he thinks
that he can acquire power over that
man for life or death. In order to
adapt the bones for that purpose
they are first scraped, and then a
lump of red ochre, fish oil, the eye of a fish, and the flesh from a corpse, are
stuck upon them and the whole is laid on the breast of a human corpse. Then,
if the other person annoys the magician, he sticks the bone in the earth near
the fire so that the lump melts slowly away ; as it melts it causes the man for
whom it is intended to fall ill at however great a distance. Human kidney
fat possesses magical power against evil spirits, and it is accordingly extracted
from corpses and even from living prisoners.
The magicians, however, are not the only doctors ; besides them there is a
special physician class, and in the west the old women also often practise. But,
Australian
bull roarers " — one-fourth real size.
(Berlin Museum.)
390 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
as a rule, both businesses go together, and it is curious to see how the magicians,
under certain circumstances, act as rational nature doctors. Among the Narrinyeri,
the physician after exorcism operates by vigorous pressing and kneading of the
suffering part. Against rheumatism they use vapour baths over hot stones upon
which herbs previously wetted are laid. Cold bathings, scarification, blood-letting
are also employed, but care is taken that the blood should never fall to the ground,
but flow in a network of crossing lines over the body of another man. The fact
that different doctors have each his special remedy may have some connection
with the kobong ; one will use a snake, another an ant, a third seaweed, which
they employ as friend or protector on every occasion.
Among these races also, the objects of veneration are subject to change.
Taplin found that the legends were not nearly so firm and complete in the popular
recollection as H. E. A. Meyer, the missionary, had found them twenty-five or
thirty years before. The younger men of the present generation know very little
of them.
C. MALAYS AND MALAGASIES
§ 1 6. THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO
The Malay Archipelago is the largest island group of the inhabited earth, and both
by its nature and by its history a portion of Asia, the largest division of the earth.
Borneo, Sumatra, and Java, islands in shallow water near the mainland, reach up
to Further India. On the other side of this western division a deep channel forms
the border, cutting it off from an eastern region which, in its fauna and flora,
tends rather to show affinities increasing from west to east with Australian condi-
tions. The connection between Asia and Australia is formed by the two main
chains, Sumatra, Java, Timor, and Borneo, Celebes, Molucca, New Guinea, with
which the Philippines are connected as a northern branch in the direction of
Borneo to Formosa. The races comprehended under the term Malays live on these
islands from Further India to the west coast of New Guinea. We meet with them
even in the Nicobar Islands under Further Indian, especially Burmese, influences,
while a branch of them peopled Madagascar.
The coast of the archipelago and the islands off the coast afford plenty of
well-sheltered anchorage. The greater or less degree of accessibility has here also
left its mark upon the history of the races. Towards the Strait of Malacca
Sumatra turns its eastern shores, approach to which is invited by fertile lowlands
and navigable rivers. In the Battak country, life was already prospering both in
the interior and on the gentle eastward slopes before the colonists were driven by
over-population to descend upon the wilder west coasts. The nature of the ground
is very various, almost all the islands are mountainous. The smaller islands, like
Lombok and Sumbawa, are merely great volcanoes ; nearly all the highest peaks
are volcanic and for the most part active. In the immediate neighbourhood of
these mighty chimneys, which hurl out masses of ashes and stones, are the most
fertile lowlands with their copious civilization and dense population. The
destruction of 40,000 human lives by the eruption of the Sumbawa volcano in
1 8 1 5 , the washing away of 1 6,000 men by the diluvial waves which followed the
eruptions of Krakatau in 1883, are no solitary instances. Besides this there are
devastating earthquakes and cyclones ; it is indeed the chosen cock-pit of the
destructive forces of Nature. The region from which volcanic activity is furthest
removed is found in Borneo and the neighbouring islands ; here hilly country
prevails which as it extends more widely increases to lofty table-lands. Junghuhn
ascribes to the distinction between mountain and lowland a considerable influence
upon the races of the archipelago. " The home of the Battaks," he says, " is a
plateau with a cool and light air ; they have an uninterrupted view to the far
distance; their horizon is open, their government is free. But the Javanese live
392 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
in the lowlands concealed under the shadow of trees, they are narrow spirited
and cling pusillanimously to their domestic hearth." The contrast between
progressive coast-races having free intercourse with their neighbours and the
secluded old-fashioned races of the interior, gives everywhere a measure for the
ethnography of the less cultivated northern and eastern districts : the Philippines,
Celebes, the Moluccas, Banda, and Timor.
A tropical and oceanic position makes it one of the most distinctly tropic
climates of the earth. In a country where the rainfall is so distributed over the
year that no sharply-defined dry season can be reckoned, where a deep alluvial
soil retains the moisture, those steaming primeval forests spring up which have
been styled the " gardens of the sun " ; enormous forcing-houses full of vegetation ;
a great zoological garden full of rare and. curious beasts. But besides these, there
are also regions, like the low lands of Acheen, with their forests peopled by
ancestral orang-outans, where malaria and the impenetrable rattan thicket,
harbouring its legions of leeches, have been able to preserve a Malay kingdom in
independence. In Sumatra, the irregular but heavy rainfall streaming down with-
out any monsoon -change, allows but few of the fruit trees, which in the neigh-
bouring Java offer such splendid produce, to thrive. The lowland regions in these
districts are traversed by streams the strength of whose flow varies with the more
sharply distinguished seasons, and their recurring inundations make the land
malarious and uninhabitable. Where during the east monsoon you can only
progress with labour, you may during the west monsoon sail over broad sheets of
water, often right through the forests of the inundated plains. Where tidal rivers
prevail, the coast swamps, also teeming with fevers, form belts of mangroves infecting
even the neighbourhood of the cultivated Samarang.
The Malayan Archipelago possesses a flora Indian in character and of extreme
variety in a narrow space. The primeval forest is distinguished by a greater
abundance of palms, many of which man has converted to his own uses. By the
banks of the rivers grows the thick-stemmed feathery-leaved true sago palm, one
of the noblest and most useful of the palms, the chief habitat of which is found in
Borneo. More than half the sago used on the earth is supplied by Sarawak. In
the daily life of the Malays the nipa palm {Nipa fruticans) is valuable as material
for building and roofing. The slender areca palm encloses the homesteads, and no
market of the archipelago is without its nut, known as the Penang nut, or the
sirili leaves. The bamboo finds employment for the purposes of hut building, for
yokes, water -vessels, blow-guns, and various musical instruments. The edible
banana is cultivated everywhere ; the arenga palm affords the brown sugar of the
country. The flower spike is chopped off and the juice allowed to flow through
a bamboo tube, it is then evaporated in metal basins and partaken of as palm
wine. In the low lands the coco-palm is widely found ; clove and nutmeg also
belong to the archipelago, and the bread-fruit tree to its eastern regions ; and it
is one of the most important districts as regards the production of coffee, rice,
sugar, spices, and tobacco. Rice is the principal article of food, especially in the
west, and the native names for it overthrow the theory that this plant and its
cultivation were imported from India. Among fruit trees the durian, with its dark
leaves and lofty stem, bears a fruit said to be the best on earth. The Musa
textilis of the Philippines furnishes manilla hemp. Among timber trees, the two
araucarias of Borneo are of importance in native architecture. The Dyaks make
BODILY CONFORMATION AND INTELLECTUAL LIFE OF MALAYS 393
a black varnish for colouring their teeth from Chalcas paniculata and a sort of
Artocarpus. In Formosa, the mountains of the interior are covered with the
camphor tree wherever the devastations of the Chinese have not penetrated.
In Java and Borneo arrow poison is furnished by species of strychnos and antiaris,
and the Malays flog thieves with freshly cut sprigs of a shrubby stinging nettle.
Tracts of meadow and heath formed by cutting away timber often have a
certain importance ethnographically. In Formosa the Chinese territory is almost
treeless, and is planted with tea, coarse grass taking the place of the forest. In
the highlands of Sumatra, the extent of the grass land has caused people to infer
earlier settlements, since in these regions nothing but cultivation can drive back the
forest. The nutritious grass of these clearings has caused them to become
pasturage for the abundant cattle and horses of the Battaks ; on the other hand,
in Borneo, the Dyaks do not venture across the dry moors deep in sand and
sparsely covered with scrub, unless wearing sandals of bark.
The elephant, the rhinoceros, the tiger, and the orang-outan are sufficient to
indicate the abundant fauna of these islands ; it is greatest in Sumatra, where the
elephant and tapir form a closer bond with the continent. Game of all kinds,
buffalo, wild boar, roe and dwarf stag, are frequent in the less settled districts of
Borneo and the Philippines, while monkeys and squirrels abound in the palm
forests. The shores afford fish and shell -fish in profusion, and also valuable
trepang and tortoise-shell, which called into existence from early times a brisk
trade with China. The trepang fishery has brought Malays from Macassar, as
far as Australia. Nor must we forget the edible swallow's nest of Java.
§ 17. BODILY CONFORMATION AND INTELLECTUAL
LIFE OF THE MALAYS
The Malay race— Comparison with the Polynesians— The true Malays and the Alfurs— Social and foreign
influences- Indian, Chinese, Arabic, and European— Character— The civilized and the savage Malay-
Religious notions— Intellectual capacity— Language— Writing— Literature— Art— Dances and games.
The full description which we have given of the physical appearance of the
Polynesian races makes it almost superfluous to do the same for the Malays,^
since both belong to one stock. However far they may have separated geographi-
cally and ethnographically, they form, in respect of bodily characteristics and
language, one Malay and Polynesian group, though an admixture of dark negroid
blood is not absent from the western Malays as far as Malacca. But, on the
whole, the population of the Malay Archipelago has preserved the character of
the light brown, straight-haired, slim race of medium stature, in greater purity than
that of Polynesia, which being numerically less and further from the point of origin,
is for both reasons more accessible to effective crossing.
The colour of the Malays may be called light brown, though there are varia-
' The name Malay denoted originally a small tribe of Sumatra. In Valentyn's time it was applied e^ecially
to the tribe in the gold region of Sungei Pagu, but had already migrated to the coasts of Borneo, Sulu, Ternate,
and Tidor, with the emigrants from Menangkabor and Malacca. In the mouth of Europeans *« "^0='
civilized race gave its name to the whole population of the archipelago. The etymology of the name Malay
is obscure.
394 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
tions. The people of Acheen and the Battaks are dark compared with Javanese
or Dyaks, and in general a dark tint of skin is more frequent in the east than in
the west. Many Javanese are straw coloured, but the differences are by no
means great, and tend to vanish. Considering the influence which social rank
exercises here also upon physical characteristics, they only acquire a deeper
interest where they are combined with other peculiarities. The Acheenese and
the Battaks are alike bigger and stronger than their neighbours ; the light
Javanese are smaller, while the still lighter Formosans and the Tagal half breeds
of the Philippines, with their mixture of Chinese blood, are better grown than
their Tagal neighbours. The hair is more decidedly straight than among their
Polynesian kinsfolk ; similarity with the Polynesians is marked as regards the
curly but not woolly-haired races in Ceram, Gilolo, Timor, and Amboyna, all
these instances occurring in the eastern part of the archipelago. On the other
hand, harsh straight hair, according to Riedel, characterises the people of
Timorlaut ; among the Dyaks we find wavy hair with a Semitic type of face.
In the region of transition the hair is the most striking of all marks of race, even
for- the natives themselves, whence the name " Papua." When we get west of
the Aru and Key Archipelagos we do not meet with true curly hair again till we
are among the Orang-Panggang and Semang in the interior of the Malay
peninsula. In Ceram, Timor, and Allor, the prevailing hair is rather woolly
than curly, forming wigs sticking out in every direction, of vast circumference ; it
fills a wide zone between the Malayan and Papuan regions, and is connected by
Virchow with the Veddahs in the north and the Australians in the south. In
their stature, 5 ft. to 5 ft. 8 in., the Malays are inferior to the Polynesians ; the
smallest seem to belong to Amboyna. The form of skull is mainly brachycephalic,
even to excess, but this is chiefly by artificial deformation. Long heads have
been proved to exist among the Igorrotes of Luzon and the Ceramese, medium
in the Moluccas and Timor, that is in the east.
The question as to the original inhabitants of the archipelago has, except so
far as regards the poor, hardly recognisable remains of it formed by the dark
woolly-haired men to the eastward, been temporarily removed from the programme
of ethnography. Papuan elements have permeated freely, especially in Ceram,
Tidor, Ternate ; expressions like bastard Malays, bastard Ceramese are familiar
to students of the subject. Papuas have invaded these regions as pirates and
been imported as slaves. The origin of the scattered, dark, wavy, and woolly-
haired people on the east side of Luzon, in the interior of the Malay Peninsula,
and on Timor, is uncertain ; if the Orang-Semang of Malacca, whom Stavens
has recently regarded as hybrids of negroid races with Malays, owe their Malayan
resemblance to the neighbourhood of civilization, his idea has less anthropological
value. The same is the case with the Negritos of the Philippines, and perhaps
the Igorrotes stand nearer to the original population than they do. The names
Negritos and Alfurs, which were once thought to imply negroid elements, often
indicate in reality only straight-haired Mongoloid people in a low state of
civilization.
The unity of the Malayan races seems, at the very fifst glance, to be supported
by their outward appearance. They are a highly-mixed race, and they have
been pointed to as the best example of an artificially formed stock, and compared
with the results of recognised race-breeding. In any case there certainly remains
BODILY CONFORMATION AND INTELLECTUAL LIFE OF MALAYS 395
conspicuous a widespread similarity and symmetry of form. Where, in islands
like Sumatra, traces appear of two strata of population, the only evidence for this
is to be found in language and customs. Countless interminglings have taken
place here, Malays and Battaks mutually pressed each other on to the high
plateaus in Sumatra, and retired to the west and east coasts. The Lubus say
that they migrated from
Eastern Sumatra in three iit|j."
bands, the Philippine tribes
sought the coast under the
attacks of savage moun-
tain tribes, and others again
for the sake of trade and
commerce ; volcanic erup-
tions, earthquakes, hurri-
canes, inundations, famine,
drove thousands into distant
regions, and caused deserts
which had to be replenished
again by immigration from
without. The Mahometan
invasion forced the Bajus,
a small people of Sunda,
on to the almost inaccessible
forest plateau of Pangeleran.
The Orang-laut, a blend
of homeless people, chiefly
with Malay elements, are
the Vikings of these seas,
and their traces are found
almost without exception in
the islands. Like them
were the Sikas of Borneo
and the Wajus of Celebes.
The genuine Malays, even
when they had acquired
settled dwelling-places, took
to a sea life by inclina-
tion. Fishery, trade, and . . c ^ a
piracy are among their favourite occupations, their agriculture is impertect, and
if there ever were pastoral races among them there are none now.
A survey of all these influences makes it impossible to avoid the conviction
that, however homogeneous the population may be on the surface, we must, in
considering it, assume repeated mixtures. This consideration is necessary, not
theoretical, and is always gaining in force. Thus we have like and unlike elements
constantly permeating each other, and as the result, a progressive wearing down
of differences. . . ^
Further, racial divergences in two directions have been due to social mtluences.
Hard and regular labour stamps particular peoples with the traits of civilization
A Battak of Sumatra. (From a photograph
396
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
almost to the point of malformation. Thus the Milanos of Borneo are far inferior
to the Malays in stature and in regularity of feature. They are light-coloured,
but the tint is often unhealthy. Passing their whole lives in treading or pressing
sago from the pith of the palm, they get broad feet ; they are thick-set and dwarfish.
The Javanese and Madurese, highly cultivated, and exposed for centuries to
Indian, Chinese, and European influences, are of a more elegant and dignifjed
build than their neighbours.
That the " Orang-laut, the
maritime Malay of the
peninsula, who spend most
of their existence on. the
water, should be dark-
coloured, is but natural.
Forest and mountain tribes
are changed by their wild,
penurious, irregular life.
Thus too, the Lubus, the
Utos, and to some extent
the Bajus, also the various
tribes of the Philippines,
whom the Spaniards incor-
rectly lump together under
the name of Igorrotes, are
very pariahs in outward
appearance. But it will not
do to base divisions into
races and sub-races on such
slight variations.
What we must firmly
hold is the profound effect
of influences from the con-
tinent of Asia upon the more
westerly regions ; whereby
the Papuan affinities will, as
a matter of course, be more
noticeable in the east. From
East Java, the seat of the
true Javanese population,
which does not belie its
Indian schooling, civilizing influences radiated, affecting profoundly not only intel-
lectual activity but also agriculture and manufactures. Indian traces in Borneo,
Sulu, Sumatra, the Philippines, most of all in the ruins of Bali, point back, both
in speech and in writing, to the Indian kingdoms in Java. Beside these there
was in Sumatra, as is shown by the very independence of the Battak writing, a
central point, perhaps of less grandeur, but of considerable importance. Fantastic
as it is, the Malayan chronicle has some ground for dividing the world into the
three empires of Rum (that is Rome including Constantinople), China, and Pulo
Mas or the Golden Island, the empire of Menangkabau. Probably Malays, or
A Dyak of Borneo. (From a photograph
in the Damann Album. )
BODILY CONFORMATION AND INTELLECTUAL LIFE OF MALAYS 397
Javanese, or both, were the agents in bringing here the elements of the higher
civilization. Malay traces in Borneo testify that not every kingdom which tradi-
tion and history show to have existed there, owed its foundation to the Chinese
only. The soil of Sumatra, too, gives up in increasing quantity sculptures of
Indian Brahmanic character. Throughout the Western Archipelago the Malays
are only poor foreigners upon a territory once rich in culture, whence, down to the
fifteenth century, noble temples and palaces rose.
W. von Humboldt found it probable, from a com-
parative study of the language, that there was an
old connection between the Malay races and those
of the Sanskrit stock. Then, since the home of
the genuine Malays must be sought in Sumatra, the
tradition of relations between that island and India
gains in significance, and therewith the assumption
of several centres whence Indian civilization was
diffused, becomes probable. In point of date the
Brahman foundations in Java and Sumatra must fall
near together. At present only the Klings, who are
Tamils, are strongly represented in Malacca and Java.
Chinese influence is greater than appears upon
the Malay population. The Chinese drives no
propaganda, and does not put himself forward ;
but his effect goes all the deeper. Formosa and
Manilla are witnesses to the progress of the China-
man. The Chinese -Tagal hybrids are a very
numerous race, extraordinarily efficient and superior
to the half-breed of European blood. Even in a
number of the Philippine peoples, such as Tinguians
and Itanegs, Chinese blood is suspected. Hogan
reckons 300,000 Chinese half-breeds in the Dutch
East Indies. Chinese trade is known to have
reached Java, Sumatra, and Malacca before the
end of the tenth century of our era. Political rela-
tions, amounting to dependence, came about between
the small island states like Sulu and China. In
Borneo actual kingdoms sprang from the settle-
ments of Chinese gold-diggers. Banca, Billiton,
and the tin districts of Malacca, on the mainland, '^^^^;:^^\:^^-Zi \Z^.
were, and still are, worked only with the aid of holm Ethnographical Collection.)
Chinese organisation. The sago trade and sago
refining, the tortoise-shell and trepang trades, may almost be regarded as Chinese
monopolies ; and still more the opium trade, which even forty years ago was
in the hands of pure Malay tribes in the peninsula.
Since the fifteenth century the Arabs have, in spite of their small^ numbers,
acquired a great moral importance as bearers of Islam. With the multitude they
are undoubtedly in the greatest esteem. It is hard to say whether a Chinese or
an Arab is better at trading ; but as a strict Mussulman the Arab certainly holds
the more important social position. In spite of opposition on the part of
39S THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Christian missionaries, Islam has, during recent years, acquired alrnost exclusive
possession of wide regions in the interior of Sumatra ; and the eastern Sulu Islands
have, for a long time, been rightly called the Mecca of the East.
Europeans have only founded settlements in these beautiful tropic lands. In
Java or Celebes, as in India, there are but few Europeans who are willing to finish
their lives in the country and found a family. People go there merely to govern
and to make money, especially to the Dutch East Indies. The Spanish and
Portuguese have assimilated themselves much better to the natives, and the
Spanish Tagal half-breeds in the Philippines may be reckoned by the hundred
thousand. It is not clear whether Nature forbids the formation of a mixed race
from Germans and Malays ; Riedel found in Kiser a half-breed colony of Dutch,
French, and Germans, dating from the end of the seventeenth century, but the climate
prevents northern Europeans from taking deep root. For this reason the influence
of Europeans has done very little good in the richest countries of the archipelago.
The native was there only to be used and used up, not to be improved. Indigenous
trade was made to serve foreign interests ; agriculture and industry were supported
only so far as they promised immediate profit. The only benefit conferred was
peace, under the protection of which the population increased, and still increases,
in Java, Madura, and Celebes ; in recent times also with extraordinary rapidity
in Sumatra.
The fundamental traits of the Malay character have much resembling the
Mongol ; he is gentle, peaceable, quiet, and civil, submissive to authorities, and
rarely disposed towards crime. But to this must be added a tendency towards
suspicion and — its twin brother — lack of frankness. Other points are taciturnity,
quietness in assemblies, formality in intercourse. The free Malay is marked with
a more savage stamp ; many tribes show a warlike strain, as evidenced in the life
of piracy which some follow, the difficulty of subjugating many Battak, Alfur, and
Tagal races, and the excellence of the soldiers from Amboyna, Macassar, Madura,
even Java. Concealed savagery often comes unexpectedly to light, and then
we are inclined to doubt of the possibility of educating them to civilization,
and are even disposed to doom them to extinction. The wild fury of the
amok runner, blind wholesale murders, are sudden breaches in the cold husk.
Even though the cannibalism of individual tribes may form no essential trait in
the general character, the practice of such a custom, in an otherwise high state of
civilization, remains a sign of a cruel disposition. The Malay's power of work,
and delight in work, has often been unfavourably judged. The brisk activity in
trade shown by certain Malay tribes, especially the Bugises, cannot blind us to the
fact that a genuine impulse to energetic labour is not much more native to the
Malay than to the Negro, and that he prefers to do only so much as the day
requires. But with the sweating system in vogue, a distaste for labour is often
only a distaste for compulsory labour ; in the Philippines a slight increase in wages
exercised a great attraction for the native labourer, and Sarawak, under skilful
management of free native labour, produced great results in the domain of
agriculture.
The religious temperament is not everywhere alike, and here, too, religious
disposition is various. It may be said that the Dyak has more religion than the
Battak ; at least he shows more outward manifestation of religious need, but his
religion is decidedly worse than that of the Battak, upon whom it still exercises
BODILY CONFORMATION AND INTELLECTUAL LIFE OF MALAYS 399
some slight moral influences. Thus it is said that the inhabitants of Timorlaut
do nothing without prayer or sacrifice. The true Malays of Borneo, even when
they dwell near the Dyaks, have accepted Islam more cordially than have these
latter, who, in spite of their turbans and their pilgrimages to Mecca, have remained
heathens inwardly. Even in that Mussulman fanaticism, which has actually caused
fears for the European sovereignty in the Dutch and Spanish possessions, the
A Calinga of Luzon in the Philippines. (From a photograph in the Damann Album.)
tribes vary much. The most fanatical are the true Malays ; the hardest to convert,
the Battaks, among whom Islam has made the slowest progress. In the Sulu
Islands the Spaniards had to contend with assassins in the shape of the Moras
juramentados, who had taken the oath to slay Christians. In Acheen the
people are fairly tolerant towards those of another faith. Pilgrimages to Mecca
have become very common among the Malays, chiefs give large sums to defray
the pilgrims' journey, and a Hadji who has visited Mecca is now almost sure to
be among the domestic staff of a rich man.
40O THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Intellectual capacity shows itself mainly in the gift of annexing foreign culture
they are good imitators in everything ; they have even reached a certain dexterity
in counterfeit coining. The different religions have made their way rapidly and
close upon the heels of one another. It is some decades since English missionaries
in Madagascar had to take steps to prevent the diffusion of Paine's Age of Reason,
and other works of a free-thinking nature. Self-control is expressed in every-
day life, and the oriental talent for tranquillity and moderation is retained, however
hotly passions may seethe in their hearts. Their address is courteous, in the
higher rank fastidious. Eloquence is native to the Malay, the language loves
repetitions of varied forms, and thus preserves even an unintelligent flow of talk
from faltering.
The calculation of time is simple among the forest-tribes. They reckon the
day from sunrise to sunset, and longer divisions of time according to the recurrence
of full moon, and the dry and rainy seasons. The solar year is of Indian intro-
duction. From the same source came writing and the elements of religion, as
well as the designation of the eight regions of the heaven, the signs of the zodiac,
and the month of thirty days.
The identity -of the Malayo-Polynesian language from Easter Island to Mada-
gascar, from Formosa to New Zealand, is beyond question. Forty dialects may be
spoken in Timor or eleven in Aru, but a fundamental agreement prevails. All
belong to the Agglutinative family. Root-words undergo little or no change, but
new words are formed by means of prefixes, suffixes, insertion, and reduplication,
The radicals are, with few exceptions, disyllabic, and do not show their grammatical
value in this form. Quite a hundred derivatives may exist for any root. Juxta-
position of consonants is avoided. Case, number, and gender are not expressed
by inflection. The marks of Malayo-Polynesian languages" are euphony, simplicity,
vagueness. These apply especially to Malay in the stricter sense, which for that
reason has succeeded in becoming the lingua franca of the archipelago. Some of
the differences may be referred to admixture with foreign elements. In the Tagal
dialects we find Chinese and perhaps also Japanese, while Sanskrit and Tamil
elements make up more than 40 per cent of the vocabulary of the westerly islands.
Including Arabic, Chinese, and Dutch, the percentage of foreign words in many
dialects must be over fifty. The frequent shiftings of population cause linguistic
changes ; and further, pronunciation constitutes a ground of difference.
The most various views have been expressed in regard to relations of the
branches of the Malay family of languages towards each other. The dialects of
Oceania are probably to be regarded as the older forms, while those of the west
Malays have become modified by continental influences in a higher degree. The
most important groups are the Tagals of the Philippines, to whom the Formosans
and Sulu Islanders are akin ; and the Malays of Malacca, to whom belong the
Acheenese, the Rejangs, and the Lampongs of Sumatra. Akin to the Javanese
are the people of Bali and Madura, and to a less extent those of Sunda in West
Java. The Macassarese and Bugises of Celebes form a companion group. To
the Battaks of Sumatra belong the inhabitants of the Nias and Batu groups.
Borneo belongs by origin to the Dyaks. Lastly, the Alfurs spread from the
north of Celebes over the lesser archipelagos to New Guinea. In respect of
language, the people of the Nicobars and the Tsiampas in the east of Further India
are near to the Malay family. The influences of civilization have brought the
BODILY CONFORMATION AND INTELLECTUAL LIFE OF MALAYS 401
great race together in larger groups, which we can distinguish as West Malays
subject to Indian influence, North Malays to that of China and Japan, and East
Malays lying out of the reach of either.
A great many of the races of the Indian Ocean have mastered the art of
writing, which has reached them from India ; as, for instance, the higher tribes of
Sumatra, the Javanese, the people of Balu, and the Visayas, the Bugises, and the
Tagals. Humboldt long ago called attention to internal differences ; were these
acquired directly or indirectly, and have they undergone further development ?
In most cases we may assume a
secondary outflow, probably from
Java, whence, even in historical times,
powerful influences have reached to
Sumatra also. Later, owing to the
spread of Islam, Arabic became the
usual writing among the genuine
Malays, and most recently Dutch
influence has brought Roman char-
acters into use. The material on
which the letters are inscribed is
bast, bamboo-bark, or lombar-\e2ives ;
also a stuff like parchment prepared
from bamboo. The ruder tribes do
without writing. As a substitute
for it, knotted strings are used in
Ceram, Formosa, and elsewhere.
As to an independent Malay
literature, so far as it has any
special character, it is too insignifi-
cant and too much in one line to
call for mention ; , being limited to
legends, anecdotes, and books of
magic. Indeed, until at Marsden's
instigation the legal customs of the T.^^„„g3^ ^j^^ Rejang characters, from Sumatra-four-fiftta
Rejangs, Passamahs, and others were -. . . ,.
collected a hundred years ago, there
real size. ( Munich Museum. )
seems to have been no written Malay law ; though Arabic writings upon law
and other subjects had already been translated into Malay, Javanese, and
Bugis. Their poetry mingles Indian with Arabic forms. The greater poems,
in the mythic -historical and descriptive manner (SJtar), consist of four-lined
stanzas, the lines as a rule rhyming ; the lesser celebrate gods or men, contain
reflections on the nothingness of the world, the unkindness of fortune, love, and
the like. Here the oriental parallelism of thought recurs in double strophes with
the character of recitative. In their singing too a recitative, mostly nasal and
drawling, predom.inates. The imagery of their love-songs awakes reminiscences
of the Koran or the Song of Solomon. The Javanese affect a vowel rhyme
in the fabulous ballads, in which they represent the period 500 years ago as
of remote mythical antiquity. The Pepos of Formosa, in songs composed m
the Malay tongue, chant the moonshine and sunshine, the forest and liberty, and
2 D
402 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
the heroic deeds of various great chiefs. While Indian pantomimes are produced
at the courts of Javanese princes, the Spaniards have naturalised their Moor-dramas
in the Philippines no less than in America, setting forth in endless variations
fights between Christians and Mussulmans, spiced w^ith amatory episodes. The
Wajang actor illustrates the old heroic legends in puppets-shows with flat leather
marionettes of grotesque form and colour ; using artificial stimulants to enable
him to recite and act all night long. Every Javanese court possesses a player of
this sort. In the tales, beasts play a great part. In the beast-fables, which
Riedel has collected from the Minahassas and others, there are mythological traces
reminding us of similar tales in South Africa and America ; the place of the jackal
or coyote being here taken by the monkey. A great many others in the western
islands deal with elephants.
All this has, no doubt, among the more advanced tribes, been preserved in a
pretty much unaltered form by means of writing, but it is, for the most part, a
treasure of which no one now knows the right use. The sole importance of
writing is that it prevents the monuments of past times from perishing utterly ;
and it has certainly contributed to keep a race like the Battaks at a certain
elevation, after their closer connection with their native civilization had been
loosened.
Mother-wit is attested by various proverbs. " Escaping the jaws of the
alligator to fall into the fangs of the tiger " ; " When the junk founders, the shark
gets his dinner " ; " The net calls the basket a coarse bit of work " ; " What use is
it for the peacock to swagger in the jungle ? " ; " Can the ground turn itself into
iron ? " A coward is called " a duck in spurs " ; a tricky person " sits like a cat
and springs like a tiger " ; of a chatterer, " The turtle lays a thousand eggs and no
one knows ; the hen lays one and tells all the world." A bit of fatalism is, " Even
the fish who lives at the bottom of the sea comes to the net at last."
Nothing speaks so plainly as their sculpture, of a descent from a higher level.
We can see what Malay races under Indian influence achieved 600 or. 700 years
ago. Not only do we find mighty ruins, and finished statues in stone or bronze ;
but highly conventionalised forms appear even in the simple ornament with which
the Alfurs beautify their wooden sepulchral monuments and stone coffins, richer
and more regular than any that the art of " natural " races produces ; and this
influence appears in operation as far away as New Guinea. Among the Dyaks
we find a specially rich development of art in their wooden shields, the sheaths
of daggers, krisses, and spears, carvings of every kind, and iron blades. It is
interesting for its suggestions of China ; thus the Dyak dragon-ornament seems
to be of Chinese origin.
The modern temples of the Brahmanic Siva-worship are not comparable to
the monuments of a great age. Their premises are extensive indeed, but modest.
The famous settlement of the gods at Vator on Bali, the object of numerous
pilgrimages, consists of many open spaces, separated by hedges and enclosed
within a high wall. In these stand square pillars with niches, and oven-like
shrines with a small hollow space above. Besides this there are stalls lightly
built of bamboo, where the pious eat and sleep during the festival, which lasts for
days. In the older buildings the most ornamental thing is the porch, with two
octagonal side-pillars of vast thickness, set round with statues, and having stepped
cornices, with reliefs in niches and other ornament. The most magnificent orna-
BODILY CONFORMATION AND INTELLECTUAL LIFE OF MALAYS 403
ment of those periods is the temple, with its
precincts at Burubudor, near Jokjokarta in Java.
This dates from the eighth century, and forms
an enormous group of five ledges -running in
broken lines, with 555 n-iches for life-size images
of Buddha, and narrow galleries with carvings
of the most artistic kind. The bas-reliefs, if
placed in a row, would extend to a length of
over three miles. Like the Indian topes, this
o-icrantic monument was intended to receive a
sacred memorial of Buddha in a reliquary ; and
the five rows of steps were for the procession
to mount up and go round by. The palace-
buildings, again, however spacious they may
be, have at the present day Httle that is
monumental about them. They remind one of
the palaces of negro chiefs ; instead of one hut,
such as the subject inhabits, we have a hun-
dred. If any architectural flights occur, it is
where, during the last century, not Indian but
Chinese themes, and latterly misunderstood
ideas from Europe, have made their way in.
A palace of this kind is an entire city, enclosed
in walls like a fortress, surrounded with bar-
racks, traversed by courtyards and garden. It
contains a population of officials, attendants,
and hangers-on, and consists of courts sur-
rounded by galleries and detached dwellings,
decorated with plants and flowers in Chinese
and Japanese pots, aviaries, wretched kiosks,
and deformed trees.
The musical instruments of the primitive
Malay tribes do not reach a higher level than
those of Melanesia. The Ilongotes play upon
a piece of bamboo, in which they make strings
by incisions in the outer bark, and they also
make flutes of bamboo. Among the mountain
tribes of southern Luzon we find an instrument
recalling the gora of the Hottentots, a dried
stalk of a scitamineous plant bent into a
curve by using a tendril as a string, and a half
coco-nut shell attached thereto to give reson-
ance ; with the additioij of a stick we have the
lyre and plectrum in its most primitive form.
The nose flute and Pan-pipes, as well as a
guitar of poor tone with two strings of rattan,
are found in Borneo, Celebes, and Java.
Among the Dyaks the Pan-pipe is provided
v^^»>^
Fw
"1
-^
\
Milii^
1
IP'
1
|!
y
*?
^
1,
B
i
\
|,
1
'\
\
.
i
i
\
1
^
Magic staves of the
Battaks, used
especially for weather-magic, and also
in war— J real size. (Leip. and Dresd.
borne
Mus. )
404 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
with a gourd for resonance, and the single pipes with holes like flutes. The
Battaks have a violin and a guitar, each with two strings ; the alarm drum is
called tabu ; tom-toms and gongs have become common through Indian or Chinese
influence. The highest development of music in the Indian style is found at the
courts of the rich chiefs. The gamelan or gamalang, the orchestra of a prince
in Surakarta, consists of copper bowls of all shapes and sizes ; rows of copper
discs from 2 inches to i yard long on bronze stands ; planks of resonant wood,
resembling in their arrangement the African marimba ; gongs, large and small,
4 inches to 6 feet in diameter ; and lastly, two-stringed fiddles. Big drums also
belong to the gamelan. The orchestra starts at a given signal, a hurly-burly of
strange tones — loud, soft, silvery, wailing — ensues, amid which is heard the
bellow of the gongs. It is seldom that any melody emerges. From time to
time the screaming voices of the women accompany the doleful music. In
Borneo and Celebes we find in the place of this Javanese orchestra only the
gong and a kind of wooden harmonica ; in the Philippines Chinese music is
cultivated.
Dancing among the genuine Malays is participated in by the men only, but
in Java and in the east by both sexes. At court festivals in Kutei, Dyaks appear
in weapon dances, as well as the sultan's premiere danseuse from Java. Dance and
pantomime merge into each other ; the dancers are also comedians, and the dance
is almost always accompanied with singing. In general the dances are much too
slow for our taste, and this is true even of the weapon dances with spear or kriss.
Deportment rather than grace is their prevailing feature ; the taste for mimic
dances, in which individual muscles rather than the whole body play a part, is
here carried to an extreme, it is the refinement of oriental over-civilization. The
people, however, both here and in Formosa, are still acquainted with wild round
dances ; the Malays like festivity and play, but unbridled merriment is not in
their nature. Indolence and indifference are the faults specially reprehended in
the church festivals of the Philippine Malays ; still there are distinctions even in
this, the true Malays are more serious than the less restrained Dyaks ; and, in
general, life is cheery and bright in the east, in the west more taciturn and suspicious.
At the popular feasts on the conclusion of the fast, and at their accession, the
princes receive and feast everybody. At another feast both sexes live in the open
country in tents and huts, they pay visits, sing to the tambourine and the violin,,
while dance, pantomime, and song last whole days and nights. The toku, which is
danced at funeral rites in Halmahera, consists of circling round and forming chains
from evening till late in the morning. The funeral dance of the Alfurs is danced
in a closed circle, which revolves continuously from right to left with shouts, while
the orchestra, composed of old women, sits outside. In Celebes the weapon dance
with shield and sword, such as is usual throughout the archipelago, displays no
sign of melancholy or listlessness ; the whole body is in movement ; leaps, bendings,
and twistings in every direction are executed ; and the face exhibits the wildest
grimaces. Where head -hunting is customary, the very boys have a dance in
imitation of the practice in which a coco-nut represents the highly-valued object
of pursuit. If a skull has been captured, betel and tobacco are offered to it
during the dance as an act of conciliation.
Gambling is a prominent trait in the Malay character, legislation has even
been found necessary to check its excesses, and by the common law of the
DRESS, WEAPONS, AND OTHER PROPERTY OF THE MALAYS 405
Redjangs, all games, except cock-fighting, are forbidden under heavy penalties.
But cock-fighting is something more than an ordinary game, the prince and all
his great men frequently assist at it. At the court of the Sultan of Kutei mains
are fought every day ; sixty fine cocks are every day washed and carefully fed.
In the evening people assemble to play something resembling heads and tails, or
some game with Chinese cards, always for a stake — prince playing with commons,
children with old people. The cock-fights often take days to decide, even more time,
trouble, and money is required in the settlement of controversies and bets accord-
ing to elaborate rules, the place is at once a gambling-hell and a stock exchange.
No event seems too great or too small to afford an excuse for the sport. The
cocks are fitted with steel spurs, which are rubbed with lemon-juice to make the
wounds more painful. In the Battak country special huts are set apart for the
sport, standing by some frequented road midway between two kampongs or villages.
We find also among the Malays a great variety of board-games, including chess.
The top is widely diffused. Games of football are customary among the Tobak-
Battaks.
Beast-fights, imitated from India, take place at the courts of the princes.
Even tigers and rhinoceroses are brought into the arena, especially in Java ; while
in Madura they have bull-races. At the tiger-baits, or Rampok, men armed with
strong spears, four deep, form a square 150 to 200 yards in the side. The two
front rows kneel, the others stand upright. In the middle is a bamboo cage
covered with straw, and having its door fastened only by a thin cord, in which
is the tiger. At a given signal the gamelan strikes up a slow martial melody,
and two men set fire to the straw. The sparks excite the tiger to fury ; he leaps
up, and shakes at his prison until the flames reach the cord and the door bursts
open, allowing him to bound out and fly at the two men, who are retreating in
time to the music. They take refuge behind the row of spears, which closes up
after them- ; and when the tiger attempts by a mighty spring to break through the
living wall, a score of spears pierce his breast.
§ 18. DRESS, WEAPONS, AND OTHER PROPERTY OF
THE MALAYS
Dress— Stages from Ilongotes, Utos, and their allies to Javanese and Formosans — Indian and Chinese influences
—Weapons : kampilan and kriss, bow, blow-gun, arrows, poisoned arrows, spears, shields, and general
equipment — Architecture : pile buildings, free dwellings — Household implements — Agriculture : paddy
fields, harvest festival — Cattle-breeding — Hunting and fishing — Food, tobacco, betel, opium — Industrial
conditions : iron industry, pottery, weaving and dyeing — Trade — Bugises and Malays — Money.
Malay costume fluctuates between nudity and superfluity, since sundry Arabic
and Chinese influences have overspread the simplicity of the natural race. Where
the population has come least into contact with these, or has been kept back by
indolence, we find the simplest conditions. But we also see how these are always
retreating, so that even the backward mountain tribes of the Philippines, whose
loin-cloth is scarcely sufficient for decency, have partially begun to wear clothes.
It is reported of the head-hunters of Luzon, the Ilongotes of the Principe province,
who are real savages, that all their clothing is a band of beaten bark, while
4o6
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
immature boys and girls go stark naked ; yet when one of them has occasion to
go into one of the neighbouring Christian villages, he puts on a shirt and trousers.
The Formosans again vary between a scanty band and abundant clothing, accordino-
to the season of the year and the nature of their work. The Lubus of Sumatra,
who but ten years ago wore only a narrow girdle of bark, are now dressed after
the style of the Battaks ; but bark and skins still play an important part over large
districts of Borneo. The Cera-
mese wear plain belts and thigh-
cloths of bark ; the women, by
way of further clothing, have a
piece of bamboo hanging from
the girdle ; the children, who
run about otherwise naked, wear
just the minimum of covering.
Among the wandering Utos
of South Borneo — the dreaded
bearers of the blow -gun, men
and women have chavats, wow&n
of bast, while a deer or panther
skin cover the upper part of the
body ; a head-dress of fur, with
the tail feathers of the hornbill
stuck upright in it, forms part
of a costume befitting hunters.
The Dyak women wear round
their breast and neck a tissue
adorned with beads arid teeth
which hang down the back ;
the Maanjans of south-east
Borneo have a sleeveless jacket
of bark cloth in addition to their
kilt, while the women wind'
about their hips the tapis, a
smaller edition of the sarong
made out of home-woven tissue.
Men of the wealthier class have
jackets with sleeves, and their
women breast-handkerchiefs. With the invasion of the Bugis element into Borneo,
short trousers have been adopted by many of the natives, all the more readily
from the fact that these active inhabitants of Celebes have for a long while carried
on a trade in the requisite materials.
In the more westerly parts, clothing is very different. In former times, Indian
and Chinese stuffs came hither in great quantities, now sarongs are brought from
Europe by the hundred thousand. In the country itself there is a flourishing and
highly developed industry in weaving and dyeing ; in Malacca, Sumatra, and
Java, and in the smaller islands, the Malayan Bugis colonies, on the coast of Borneo,
and other islands, clothing consists of the sack-shaped sarong, which is worn in
many tasteful forms. Among the more advanced, short wide trousers and a jacket
A Calinga woman of Luzon. ( From a photograph in
the Damann Album).
DRESS, WEAPONS, AND OTHER PROPERTY OF THE MALAYS 407
are added to this ; other usual articles of clothing are a head-kerchief, a narrow
cloth called slendong, in which babies are carried ; sandals, a scarf or binder round
the body, and a hat of leaves or rattan. Among the Tobah Battaks, whoever
can afford it wears a smarter coat as fighting dress. The quality of the material
distinguishes the rich from the poor, and, as in China, yellow distinguishes the man
of rank from the plebeian. Cotton is, however, preferred for the sarong, since it is
not lawful to pray in silk. Finer materials are reserved for the families of princes ;
women often wear only the sarong. A jacket fashioned in front with a button or
brooch and trimmed with gold is often worn, while valuable hairpins and bands,
earrings, and also handsome finger rings, form their ornaments.
Differences of dress extend also to the colours, which in many regions are
striking in their variety,
while elsewhere, as among
the Malays of Sumatra,
black is usual. Often there
are very sharp distinctions
in ornament, such as a tuft
of feathers, flowers in the
hair, and so on. In the
nOrth-east, Arabic influence
makes itself felt ; the dress
of the Sulu islanders, which,
like that of Mindanao, con-
sists of turban, jacket, wide
trousers, and a cloak like
a burnoos, was at one time
held to corroborate the idea
of their Arabian descent.
The Bugises of Celebes
have imported their short
cloth trousers into Sumbawa,
Flores, and other places,
while their trade has
given a specially wide diffusion to the chequered sarongs of Macassar. In the
most northerly parts, inhabited by Malays, namely in Formosa, we find Chinese
affinities clearly expressed in trousers, shoes, and embroidered blouses. Here
the black head -kerchief, as well as the turban, is favoured by both sexes.
Among all the modern clothing, relics of the primitive dress often continue
to lead a stunted existence. The bark girdle, which the Alfurs of Ceram
put on with ceremonies in their fifteenth year, as a sign of maturity, has now
turned into a meaningless thread worn under the cotton jacket and the sarong.
In the same way, the women of the Andamans wear under their Christian clothing
their old fig leaf in the shape of a bunch of leaves, while the children of well-to-do
Malays have a gold or silver plate fastened by a chain round their bodies.
The modes of dressing the hair are manifold. Usually all hair except that of
the head is removed ; the Tagals in Luzon keep the hair cf the head short ; the
Zambals leave one long lock ; the Shekwans of Formosa, following the Chinese
customs, shave the front of the head and draw the hair into a pig-tail. ^ "
Toangos of Northern Sumatra. (From a photograph. )
On the
4o8
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
other hand, the women dress their hair in a fashion which recurs in the Phih'ppines,
in Celebes, and in Borneo. Part of the hair is combed down over the forehead,
and cut in a fringe over the eyebrows, the rest is tied in a tight knot at the top of
the head. On their heads they wear a square black handkerchief, the two corners
of which are lightly fastened together at the back of the neck, forming a sort of
cap which throws a deep shade on the face.
The iangoi, or South-East Bornean head-dress — one-third and one- seventeenth
real size. {Frankfort City Museum. )
In West Java the usual head-dress is a muffin cap of white, blue, or black
satin, in Samarang a handkerchief fastened on the head, with two corners
sticking out like wings. The people of Acheen, and some mountain tribes of Luzon,
wear a little cap of the peculiar shape shown on page 399 ; the Battaks, a cloth worn
like a turban. Among the Sumatrans of the interior, the chiefs place on their
shaven heads little caps plaited of rushes and embroidered with gold. The
women of the Bornean tribes wear large straw hats with brims a yard wide. The
Tagal caps are perfect segments of spheres. Straw caps, like those worn by
miners in Germany, are found in Borneo and Luzon ; pointed hats with tufts of
DRESS, WEAPONS, AND OTHER PROPERTY OF THE MALAYS 409
black palm fibre in Sulu. The women of Java gather their hair into a knot ; the
Tagal women wind their long sleek black hair in two loose strands round their
heads, and fasten it usually with a ribbon worn like a turban. In the Philippines,
the Sulu Islands, and among many Mussulman tribes, the turban is in general
use. In Sumatra, the mode of dressing the hair varies from one province to
another ; sometimes it falls to the shoulders, sometimes it is cut short. In the
twelve Kotas the ladies roll their hair into a coil and wrap it round with a piece of
cloth, while in the contiguous provinces they plait it into a pig-tail on one side of
the head. The Alfurs of Ceram also tie their hair to the left ; but for men, the
most usual fashion is to wear the hair in a tight knot, under a head cloth, into
Hats worn by chiefs of Kutei tribes in Borneo. (Munich Museum. )
which the Dyaks on festivals and market days fasten silver rings. High combs
of wood are worn in Ceram ; of tortoise-shell in Sumatra ; but the modes oi
dressing the hair for festivals in perfect helmets of many coloured feathers, flowers,
and leaves, are picturesque beyond description. In pugilistic contests, the
champion wears on his head a carved ring of wood, in which a bunch of leathers
is stuck. In the Moluccas the skins of birds of Paradise adorn the hair ot the
girls, while false pig-tails for women are offered for sale in the Battak markets.
The distribution of tattooing is irregular. Among the Formosans, the men
wear horizontal stripes across the whole forehead ; the women from ear to ear, and
perpendicular stripes as well. Tattooing of the hands is said to occur in the
interior of Formosa. In Luzon, almost every Igorrote has a figure of the sun on
the back of his hand. Punctured tattooing with Japanese or Chinese patterns is
found among the Catalangans. Among the Negritos as well as among the
Igorrotes, " scar-tattooing " occurs. The skin is raised in folds over the whole body,
4IO
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
and rectilineal designs worked with a pointed iron style, or a splinter of bamboQ,
In Ceram, tattooing is only found in the west, and almost exclusively in women,
Igorrote tattooing : a, i, designs on the calves of the legs ; c, d, on the stomach ; e front view ;
/, back view of a Burik ; g, a woman's arm. (From drawings by Dr. Hans Meyer. )
on the breast, upper arm, navel, and forehead ; in Timorlaut it is universal.
The tattooing of the Mentawei Islanders is executed in simple but elegant
geometrical lines. In Borneo, again, extensive tattooing has been observed
DRESS, WEAPONS, AND OTHER PROPERTY OF THE MALAYS 411
almost solely among women, on the hands, feet, and the upper part of the thigh.
Men often have merely a mark which possibly has a religious or social significa-
tion ■ on the forehead, one arm, or one leg. Thus all the Tanjan Dyaks are
Igorrote necklaces, with (a) tweezers for pulling out hair ; [b) pendants of crocodile teeth-
one-third real size. (From Dr. Meyer's collection. )
marked with • — r— '. Among some Bornean tribes extensive tattooing occurs, but
only among valiant warriors or head-hunters. Those who have come in contact with
civilization, like the Milanos,
have given it up altogether.
In Kutei the more difficult
patterns are executed by pro-
fessionals. The outline is first
cut in wood, and then the design
is transferred to the body with
a sharpened piece of bamboo,
or a needle dipped in a vege-
table pigment. The operation
is very painful and lasts a long
time, but the marks are indelible
Tattooing takes place in the
male sex, as a rule, at their
entry upon manhood, among
girls as soon as they are of an
age to marry.
For dancing the face 1=
painted ; the thumb-nail of the
left hand is, according to the
custom in the east, allowed to
grow an inch long, and the
Bugis women even have a
cover for it. Over the whole
Malayan region special attention is paid to teeth mutilation, which often appears
in connection with artificial colouring of the teeth. Most common of all is
the filing of the upper incisors and canines so that they are made shorter
but keep their shape. The same treatment is also applied to the corre-
Ring worn by the Igorrotes on the upper arm when dancing-
one-third real size. (From the same. )
412
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
spending teeth of the lower jaw. Sometimes the teeth are filed to a point,
sometimes a transverse groove is cut, or a triangle is knocked out between
the two front teeth. This is, as a rule, first done at the age of puberty.
Malay weapons : (1,2) Hat and shield from Mindanao, in the Philippines ; (3) Quiver with poisoned arrows from
Celebes ; (4) a champion's shield from Solor ; (5) Sword from Gorontalo in Celebes ; (6) Mandau of the
Kahayan River Dyaks ; (7) Outfit from Ombai ; (8) Spears from Java. (Dresden Collection.)
though we find grown men who have not yet undergone it. But in any case
good manners seem to require that it should take place before marriage. What-
ever may be the original idea of teeth filing, it is now done as a gratification of
the sense of beauty. Long white teeth are dog's teeth. Further evidence of this
is the custom, widespread in Borneo and Sumatra, of drawing gold wire through
DRESS, WEAPONS, AND OTHER PROPERTY OF THE MALAYS 413
the four incisor teeth of the upper jaw. Among the Tobah Battaks a man often
carries all his property about in his head ; in this case the teeth are always
blackened, but, as a rule, they are also blackened after the first filing. This
practice, which now is a mere matter of ornament, may have arisen from the wish
to prevent the decay of the filed teeth, either by applying the gum of a kind of
chalcas or artocarpus, as in Borneo, or by staining with a ferruginous ink, as in
Java ; but, besides this, betel-chewing causes the teeth to have a dirty appearance.
The tooth-filing is performed by experts ; formerly a stone was used, now a chisel
or file. Mussulmans have a legend to account for it, that Mohammed, on the
occasion of his flight from the sheikh of Lakad had four of his upper teeth knocked
out. On the other hand, the Formosans assert that it is done to make the
breathing easier. In Sumatra, the files, after the operation, are stuck into the stem
of a banana in order to preserve the patient from injurious consequences. Circum-
cision, sometimes in the form of slitting, was originally more widespread, but is
now confined to the east, as Ceram and Flores, where it is celebrated with great
Bow and arrows of the Negritos in Luzon— one-twelfth real size. (Dr. Meyer's Collection. )
pomp as a village, festivity. Deformation of the skull, usually by flattening the
occiputs, more rarely by oblique pressure of the forehead, occurs in the most
various Malay districts.
Apart from the ornament, which is an imitation of Indian and European
fashions, the wearing of arm-rings in large numbers, or formed by spiral twists,
reminds us of African customs. Among the simple Ilongotes men and women
wear rings of bronze or brass wire round their necks and arms, and these they set
with hard brightly-coloured seed, such as those of the Abrus precatorius. The wire
fits close to the muscular part of the arm, and no doubt is intended more for
increasing the muscular strength than for ornament. The ring worn by the
Igorrotes on the upper arm curiously resembles that similarly worn by the Negroes.
Tight-lacing of the body is found in Formosa, where you may see boys runnmg about
like wasps, while the bamboo or rattan belts of the Dyak women, worn one above
another, remind us of the laced belts of South America. In caves on Luzon arm-
rings of dugong vertebra; are found, just such as are prized by the Micronesians.
In Central Sumatra, too, the ornament of betrothed girls consists, besides ear-rings,
of narrow silver bangles worn on the wrist and fore-arm, often twenty and more in
number, and reaching to the elbows. Unbetrothed girls may only wear them on
one arm, married women not at all. The lads of Formosa are proud to wear
arm-rings made from the pig-tails which once grew upon the captured heads 01
Chinese. The Dyaks regard it as the greatest adornment to have large holes in
414
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
their ears in which they wear wooden disks or heavy silver rings. So too the
Battaks of Tobah and the Igorrotes of Luzon, who especially affect crocodile teeth.
The upper part of the Dyak ear is gay with tassels of red cotton and the like, and
as soon as a Dyak has become a distinguished head-hunter he is entitled to stick
in a pair of leopard's fangs, while in Luzon the number of ear-plugs shows the
number of decapitations performed by the wearer. When a Nias man has taken
a head, he gets a wire neck -ring
strung
Bow from Sulu of Asiatic origin, and Negrito harpoon-
one-twelfth real size. (Dresden Collection. )
with many rings carved
from the nut Lodoicea sechellarum.
The Formosans, who have been
touched by Chinese ways, make
but a moderate use of armed ear-
rings, or of glass beads, but the
unsophisticated inhabitants wear
heavy ear pendants of bamboo, stone, or metal, frontlets of shells, and thin
copper arm -rings. The Ceramese are often distinguished by a superfluity of
bead pendants, so that the impression of nudity entirely disappears, and the
Tinguians of Luzon wear heavy masses of beads or stones of many colours
which are brought from the Batanes Islands. Compared with these the necklaces
usual in Flores, made from the bright violet
flowers of Calotropis gigantea, produce a
splendid effect. The ornaments of progeni-
tors, as well as their weapons, hold a high
rank as valuable and legendary family
possessions of mystic importance, and be-
come in process of time amulets.
The Malay race delights in weapons
and finery. Among the poorer tribes, who
are predominantly nomad, the weapons arc
of a simpler kind and almost entirely
missile in character— bow or blow-gun with
arrows. Especially is this the case with the
remote tribes in the interior of Borneo and
Luzon, whom the practice of head-hunting
keeps in a constant state of war. Dyaks,
Utos, and Ilongotes never go unarmed, even
for a few paces; they sleep with their
weapons beside them. The Orang Punan
of Borneo are seldom seen without a paddle
in one hand and a blow-gun in the other ; in
^ r.i-^^„„ .-„„i <- i it, i_i Q- • . Blow-gun, arrows, and quiver, from Borneo — one-
a strong contrast to the peaceable effemmate l^^Y. real size. (Stockholm Museum.)
Javanese, Macassarese, or Padang Sumatrans,
with their delight in fanciful ornamental weapons, five-lobed daggers, three-pointed
spears, and the like. In Celebes, ornamental shields are hung up in the house,
and the inhabitant looks to them for protection. The Negritos of East Luzon
have only bows and arrows. The Ibilaos are reputed excellent archers ; but
they shoot the wild pigs which they take in nets only at short ranges. The
Igorrotes whom Hans Meyer saw were, as a rule, not acquainted witli this
DRESS, WEAPONS, AND OTHER PROPERTY OF THE MALAYS 415
weapon, though the Guinanese have
words for bow and arrow. A Hne drawn
east of Sumbawa, Celebes, and the
Philippines divides the region in which
the bow is generally diffused from that
in which the blow -gun predominates.
The form of bow prevailing in the eastern
airchipelago is simple, and has affinity
with one of the New Guinea forms.
Where the bow is used by Bugises and
others, it is in forms imported from Asia.
Among the Dyaks, Utos, and other
Bornean tribes the blow -gun replaces
the bow. This consists among the
Tubus of one bamboo inserted in another,
among the Dyaks of a tube of iron-
wood, the length of a man, smoothed
with rough leaves and furnished on its
front edge with a lance-point fitting like
a bayonet on to an iron hook, probably
for sighting. Through this instrument,
called sumpit, the Dyak blows his arrows.
They are light and thin, i o to 12 inches
in length, and made of bamboo. The
sharp point is poisoned, and for killing
large animals the arrows are furnished
with barbs. At the butt -end of the
arrow is a piece of pith fitting the calibre
of the tube, to serve at once as feather
and "gas-check." With these missiles
a Dyak can bring down the smallest
bird with accuracy at fifty yards dis-
tance, so that the weapon is more effec-
tive than the weak, unevenly made bows
used by the forest tribes of the Philip-
pines with their clumsy arrows. The
quiver, made of bamboo, is provided
with hoops of plaited rattan and a bam-
boo cover. The top is often adorned
with a snail -shell. The less civilized
Formosans carry bow and arrows of
genuine Malay shape, and so also the
Alfurs of Ceram. Their bows are of
iron-wood, the strings of rattan, the
arrow-heads of iron or bamboo ; quivers
they have none. The Alfurs of Tarandu
use both bow and blow-gun. A cross-
bow of practical construction, not, like
I'l
if
1
1
ii '
1 1
! ('11'
1 \
fl
'
\\\\
1 ■
\v\\' 1
m
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Awfei 1
Hilt
Ir^rtpw
li fl' Inl lliK\'^^ If
;W,l|||(
iilt 1
IliVi
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' II' if
ii I'll III?™/
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ililM li
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:^^^gy^rj55'=Ss5:=GS?^^-jr^^^"^=^'=^&^^ "-
Blow-gun, small quiver, and spears of the Kahayan
Dyaks of South Borneo ; bow, arrows, and quiver
from Poggi. (Munich Museum.)
4i6
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
that of the Fans shown on p. 86, apparent only, is found among the Nico-
barese, together with a very simple bow for shooting pigeons.
The poisoned arrows of Java and Borneo are among the most effective that
are known. The poison used in Java, called chettik, comes from the Strychnos
tieutd ; another, antias, from Antiaris toxicaria, the " Upas." Both affect the heart.
Mandaus or swords, krisses, and knives: (i) from South Celebes; (2) from the Batang-lupar Dyaks ; (3) from
Java ; (4) from Gilolo ; (5) from Java ; (6) from the Kahayan Dyaks ; (7) from Menlawei ; (8) from the
Rejangs of Sumatra — one-sixth real size. (Munich Museum. )
The Dyak poison, ipoh, is also from an Antiaris. The arrow-poisons of the
Philippine tribes lose their effect when not fresh. Here too the forest tribes are
regarded as dangerous poison-brewers, and European travellers are often warned
by friendly natives against accepting food from them.
Firearms have made considerable progress. In Formosa, bows and arrows
have been almost driven out by Chinese matchlocks. The admirable armourers
of Java, Sumatra, Bali, Celebes, and Borneo can also construct firearms. The
DRESS, WEAPONS, AND OTHER PROPERTY OF THE MALAYS 417
Sassaks of Lombok even bore their own gun-barrels. A round bar of iron is
stuck perpendicularly in the ground, and a drill is inserted, attached to a bamboo
with a cross-handle. In order to increase the pressure, a basket is woven round
the bamboo and filled with stones. The Battaks carve stocks in correct style and
know how to make powder. They find sulphur in their own volcanic country,
and contrive to get saltpetre by washing the urine-soaked earth under the houses.
Pieces of bamboo serve for cartridge-cases; and bits of coral are ground into
bullets. The fact that in 1570 Manilla possessed guns of native casting, and that
the Sultans of Sulu have for a long time disposed of a formidable artillery, has
caused the question to be raised whether the Chinese had not introduced the art
of casting cannon before the arrival of Europeans. But it seems simpler to explain
the facts by the operations of Portuguese and Spanish renegades. In battle these
races shoot away their powder quickly, so that the affair has, after all, to be decided
by spear and throwing-knife.
The spear holds an inferior place among Malay weapons. It is mainly an
implement of hunting or an ornament, especially in Java, and only among
certain races, as in Sulu, takes its place beside the kampilan and the kriss, among
the more serious equipment for war. But among the Igorrotes of Luzon it is
the chief weapon ; there a distinction is made between javelins with bamboo heads
and thrusting spears with arrow-shaped iron heads ; the Alfurs of Ceram also
still use a spear-head of bamboo. Among the Dyaks a long spear is used for
boar-hunting ; among the Maanjans of south-east Borneo hardly any man goes
out without spear and sword or hunting knife. It acquires, however, practical
importance principally among the hunting tribes, the Lubus of Central Sumatra.
The Ilongotes of Luzon do not pay so much attention to it as to the kampilan.
In making the head they do not confine themselves to any special shape, but suit
it to their piece of iron ; the shaft is always formed from the "pahna brava" {Corypha
minor). The Formosan spear, three or four yards in length, has frequently a
Chinese knife at its head ; in Borneo it takes the form, as we have seen, of a
bayonet fastened on the blow-gun. In the northern Nicobar Islands, ornamental
spears are found in the huts ; these are highly esteemed as marks of opulence
but are never used. These spears are manufactured only in Chowra.
Everywhere, away to Malacca, the national weapon is something between a
hunting knife and a sword, though more recent than the bow, blow-gun, and
arrow, for it is not found upon the sculptures of Parambanam, which reach down to
the thirteenth century ; it has become closely interwoven with the life of these races.
We meet with it, in a simple form, as the kampilan of the Ilongotes, who, though
in other respects poor, are clever workers in iron and understand how to temper
it. They generally ornament with gold wire the lower part of the one-edged,
scarcely curved blades, while the end is fastened with wire to the brass-covered
handle. To give a better grip this is bound with threads dipped in resin, the
sheath is of wood, and consists of two pieces fastened together with broad bands
of rush. The kampilan is attached to a belt of fine webbing worn over the shoulder
or round the body. We notice an agreement in details which can have no doubt
as to the common origin of these weapons. Whether it be the bols of the Igorrotes,
or the mandan of the Dyaks, everywhere we find a one-edged, slightly curved
blade with a broad back, a wooden hilt bound with wire, a wooden sheath, a cord
to hang it by ; pretty inlaid work of brass and perforated pattern at the back,
2 E
4i8
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
richly carved hilt, and ornamented sheath complete the description. Hilts set
with human teeth occur among the head-hunters, and here we also find the weapon
finished off by a small sheath of bark attached to the lower side of the scabbard,
containing a little knife with a long handle, with which the Dyak cuts off his
victims' heads and strips the flesh from them. This appears also independently
among the poorer inhabitants of the islands as a hunting and working knife, while
wealthy and zealous head-hunters have half-a-dozen hanging on their walls as
ornament. I
The principal weapon among the Mussulman Malays is the wavy kriss, the
national arm among the Sassaks of Lombok. The head-hunters test the sharp-
Krisses : (i) from Celebes ; (2) said to be from Bali — one-fourth real size.
(Munich Museum. )
ness of the edge, by preference, on the hair of their skins. Carved hilts orna-
mented with gold and precious stones are among the most characteristic products
of Malayan art industry, and one can trace upon them mythological themes
gradually fading away into ornament. The flame-shaped damascened blade, the
serpentine or dragon figures of the hilt, the decoration of the sheath, raise the
kriss to the rank of a weapon closely allied with religious objects ; salutary texts
are often engraved upon it ; in Wetter, a talisman wrapped up in rags is concealed
in the scabbard. The Una, weapon and tool among the mountain tribes of Luzon,
is a short, bluntly-triangular blade, broadest at the end, with the opposite edges
convex and concave. In Java, crescent-shaped knives, with a handle fixed to the
concave side, have been found in graves. Elsewhere, old knives have been found
of a peculiar shape, with appendages resembling throwing knives.
The Ifugaos of Luzon, who are equipped with spear, bow, and arrow, are said,
on their head-hunting expeditions, to make use of the lasso, commonly employed
in hunting the stag.
Among the tribes that have received Indian influence, a great variety of pro-
tective weapons is found. Wooden or wicker-work shields are to be mentioned
DRESS, WEAPONS, AND OTHER PROPERTY OF THE MALAYS 419
in the first instance ; the wooden shield is painted, covered with buffalo hide, or
adorned with inlaid shell-work, especially in the Eastern Archipelago, in the
Moluccas, and elsewhere. As we pass from group to
group special forms appear ; thus, among the Ilongotes,
the simple shield of light wood is deeply incurved above
and below. It is dyed red with the juice of some plant,
and adorned with carvings. Among the Dyak-like tribes
in some part of Celebes, and in the north of Nias, it is
heavy, of an elongated hexagonal shape, and almost as
high as a man. It has a raised rib running throughout
its length, and is painted on both sides with arabesques,
mostly red. Occasionally, too, it is decorated with human
hair; The inhabitants of the Talaut Islands have a
narrow pattern of shield, prettily ornamented. Among
the Alfurs of Ceram the shield is narrow in proportion
to its bearer's claim to valour, and for every head which
he cuts off he breaks a shell out of the shield, replacing
it by a tuft of human hair. In the greater part of Nias
the shield is lighter and of elegant shape ; this is chiefly
used in hand-to-hand fighting ; another heavier kind,
carried not with the fist but on the forearm, serves for
covering. In Sulu also we find two shields, the smaller
and most frequently carried, of circular or elliptic shape,
covers only half the body, while the large shield forms a dagger from Borneo-one-fifth
^ ■' ' ° real size. (Roy. Mus. , Leyden. )
complete covering ; both are made of hard wood and often
covered with buffalo -leather. Peculiar patterns are found in the Wetter shields
made of cow-hide cut out into the form of a cross, and in those of Nanusa or Talaut
with the narrow end shaped like a crocodile's head.
(i) Sling and sheath of {2) Igorrote chopping-knife ; (3) Guinan hatchet, from Luzon — one-sixth real size.
(From Dr. Hans Meyer's Collection. )
Armour of some sort, without being universal, occurs in all parts of the
archipelago. In Sulu it is only the humblest class who are content with shields.
420
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Many persons wrap their bodies in a thick roll of cotton wadding ; others wear
helmet and cuirass of buffalo-hide. Bastian mentions mail-coats of plaited string
from Mandhar in the Moluccas, fastening at the back, and studded both before
and behind with the
broad ends of Conus
and Trombus shells.
In the Eastern Archi-
pelago we find mail-
vests of strong coco-
nut fibre closely
woven ; in Arru, upon
hoops of rattan. Dyak
head - hunters have
them strengthened
with iron rings as in
woodcut on p. 423 ;
and they also wear
arrow -proof jackets,
wadded with cotton,
cuirasses thickly
plated with the scales
of the armadillo, and
gorgets of buffalo -
hide. The warrior's
equipment is com-
pleted by a basket
or pouch of plaited
work, which is carried
on the back or the arm,
and serves to receive
food, flint and steel,
and decapitated heads.
! The most con-
spicuous peculiarity
of the Malay house
is that it is built on
piles, as shown in
our plate, "A Tagal
Village." This style
persists even in the
European settlements..
At Padang, in Su-
matra, the houses of European residents stand on piles a yard or two in height.
On this account Banjermassing has been called the Venice of Borneo, as Palembang,
on the River Musi, that of Sumatra. The most curious instance of this arrange-
ment is the pile -built town of Kiluaru, on a little sandbank in the high sea
between Ceramlaut and Kiser, where is an emporium of the trade of the Moluccas,
and New Guinea.
Igorrote and Guinan spears and shields — one-tenth real size.
Dr. Hans Meyer's Collection. )
(From
DRESS, WEAPONS, AND OTHER PROPERTY OF THE MALAYS 421
That the motive of this style of
building was protection against man
and beast is shown by the decrease
of pile-dwellings proportionately to
the growth of public security. Thus,
among the Milanos of Borneo, all
the houses stood formerly on piles of
hard wood, 40 feet high. Nowadays
there is free intercourse among the
dwellers by all the rivers, from the
Rejang to the Bintulu, and the houses
have come down to the earth, or at
most a small space is left between
the ground and the bamboo flooring.
By the sea, however, and on the \
banks of the larger rivers, pile-dwell- \
ings retain their reason for existence, \V
both as protection against floods and "^
swamps, and as facilitating the task \K
of getting food from the water. In . W
the Philippines there are houses of ,<>^
which the bamboo poles and wicker- \^>
work are but little above the flood
level of the water. These houses *
are set close together, narrow passages
alone running between the rows ;
and the village straggles far along
the shore. When we find Dyaks
and Battaks building in the same
style on high ground, we may assume
that they formerly dwelt down by
the rivers, and thus merely retained
their accustomed fashion of building.
But there is an even nearer reason
in the security of the elevated posi-
tion. When the tree-stem with the
steps cut in it has been hauled up,
the building is like a castle with
the drawbridge raised ; and this, in ji
a head - hunting country especially,
must add materially to the safety ^S^^
of the domestic hearth. For addi-
tional security the approaches consist ;H
only of felled tree-stems. Among
the objections to pile -building on
dry land are want of cleanliness and
defective stability. '^:nft^i^^ WeVL^o fS
Defensible positions are every- (S) from Borneo. (Munich Museum, )
from
from Men-
Gorontalo ;
422
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
where selected with remarkable discrimination. Many of the kampongs or
villages of the Sumatran Battaks, of the Ilongotes, and others, are placed upon
almost inaccessible pinnacles. Favourite spots are the little plateaux formed
by the broadening of a mountain ridge. But other defences are added. In
the lower parts of the Battak country nearly all the kampongs were, in Jung-
huhn's time, surrounded with high palisades, behind which watch-towers rose.
Shield, blow-gun, spear, and swords of the Torabjas in Central Celebes — one-sixth real size.
(Frankfort City Museum. )
Now all this has naturally disappeared wherever the Dutch government has
put an end to internal fighting. Among the Battaks safe dwelling-places
are also found at the point where a tree -stem forks or throws off branches ;
the central shoot is lopped off, and the surrounding branches remain. The
Ilongotes of Luzon erect at the tops of trees their forest-huts, made from the
leaves of the nipa-^aXm and bamboo, and supported on tree-stems. Each of these
DJiESS, WEAPONS, AND OTHER PROPERTY OF THE MALAYS 423
little houses serves as a tranquil abode for a whole family. The Orang-Sakei and
the Lubus of Sumatra also live to some extent in trees.
The Ilongotes place prickly bamboo stems round their huts for security, stick
sharp arrows in the ground, and make pit-falls, so that even a friend needs to
announce his arrival some way off. Night and day sentries are posted. When
Spanish troops are looking for a fugitive criminal, their approach is known long
before, and if it is not desired to give the criminal up, nothing can be done ; they
hide in the forest where bullets cannot reach them. The only thing is to burn
their huts ; and these, says Schadenberg, are rebuilt in a day, as soon as the
soldiers are gone.
A further characteristic of Malay architecture is rhe steep roof, often 50 feet
Mail-coats worn by the Dyaks of South-east Borneo.
high, and coming far down. In the Alfur huts it comes down to the ground, and
at the back side at once includes and shuts off the fire-place. It is a gable roof
above a rectangular or square ground-plan. Round edifices are as scarce here as
in Africa they are common. In Timor we find them oval, with conical roof ; in
Tabelo there are octagonal huts ; in the Nicobars, dome-shaped roofs with angular
substructure of stakes. In rectangular buildings the walls usually have an outward
slope. The thatch is of palm leaves. In more elaborate houses, such as the out-
buildings of chiefs' dwellings, the walls are prettily wattled with palm fibres. The
gable end often bears buffalo-heads carved in wood, and other emblems, or inscribed
tablets of the nature of amulets. In windy uplands the roofs are protected by
poles from being blown off. \
The interior arrangements vary with the degree of civilization, and depend
further upon the character of the dwelling — whether occupied jointly or severally,
424
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
whether the families occupy separate apartments or one in common. The Dyaks
affect the long or village house, 80 or 90 yards in length, in which thirty or forty
families live together, but in separate rooms ; while among the Battaks four to
six families at most occupy one house, but they all live together in one room.
The separation of the women's apartments is a peculiarity of the Dyaks, but
unknown among the Battaks. The simple houses of the Mussulman Acheenese
form an oblong square, containing only the most indispensable necessaries — one
or two pots and pans, a few mats, and a sleeping-place shut off by a curtain,
which in the better families is regarded as the owner's apartment. There are
Malay utensils: (i) Comb from Timor; (2) Knife from the Philippines; (3) Sickle from Java; (4) Cow-bells
from Sumatra ; (5) Brasier and rice-pot from Java ; (6) Basket from Celebes ; (7) Rice basket from Java, lor
cooling steamed rice in the cover ; (8) Brass pipe of the Battaks. (Dresden Ethnographical Museum.)
differences also in the fashion of building. The Battaks of Tobah build far more
solidly than the Dyaks, with strong beams and mighty planks, putting much art
and industry into the carving and painting of the woodwork. An outbuilding
serves in its upper part to store rice, in the lower story as a place of sojourn during
the day for certain people, also as a sleeping-place, and as a council-house. They
even have verandahs on the narrow sides of their lofty houses. A house has to
last until the children are grown up. Dyak house-building is rendered too easy
by the gigantic development of the bamboo in their country. Throughout the
archipelago plank houses are considered better than bamboo houses. In the huts
baskets hang from the roof, and in the eastern islands the jaws of pigs and deer
as ornament. Against the wall stands a great earthenware vessel, or a large
DRESS, WEAPONS, AND OTHER PROPERTY OF THE MALAYS 425
bamboo with the partitions of all knots except the last knocked out. Among
the Battaks the strength of girls is measured by the number of such vessels they
can bring from the spring to the house. The dwellings of people of importance
are distinguished externally only by their circuit and height. The interior of the
A house in Sumatra. (From a model in the Dresden Museum.)
palace of a Moro chief in Mindanao is not divided by partitions ; mats and cushions
lie in one corner, in another women and girls are occupied in peeling fruit, in
another nets, hooks, and fishing-tackle are piled up, spears and krisses hang on
the walls, and the middle space is the reception-room. Civilization is shown in
Plough used by the Triamans of Bencoolen. (Dresden Museum. )
a few Stools, without backs, of bamboo wicker-work, for guests ; the Mores sit
cross-legged upon the floor of bamboo poles. The furniture of a Dyak house,
again, a mat or two, cooking pots and utensils round the hearth, which is placed
at the entrance, would seem poor without the warlike finery of mandaus, spears,
blow-guns, shields, and paddles, on the walls. A longitudinal partition of bamboo
divides off the common living-room, which is also the sleeping-room of the youths
426
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
and unmarried men, the remainder is subdivided into smaller rooms according to
the number of the married members of the family and the girls. In front of the
door of the dwelling room is a platform. Light enters only through gaps in the
bamboo wall. As a rule, no light burns at night for fear of attracting ghosts, but
in emergencies candles of resin are lighted. Among the Vicols large shells with
rush wicks serve as primitive lamps. Hagen says that among the Tobah Battaks
he never saw any light save that of the hearth and the opium lamp. Among the
shepherds of Java the practice of kindling fire by rubbing sticks is still found, but
elsewhere it has among the civilized tribes
been replaced by flint and touchwood.
In Ternate they strike sparks upon tinder
with a sherd of porcelain and a splinter
of bamboo.
Not only do the aquatic Malays pass
the greatest part of their life on the un-
certain element, but in the more thickly-
peopled parts of the archipelago perman-
ently-inhabited rafts lie at anchor beside
the pile dwellings. Whether the custom
be originally Chinese or not, it has quickly
taken root among the Malays, who for
months together carry rice, sago, and
rattan down their sluggish rivers on rafts
to market. Palembang has a whole suburb
of this kind.
Common houses called balei or baileo
serve in many places as sleeping-places for
unmarried men, sometimes as many as a
hundred. Herein also are hung up the
heads of slain persons and other trophies,
while among the less savage Christians
Agricultural implements used by the igorrotes • com-cobs, bulls' heads, and the like, take
^S)'^^'^r^'-$^^^r^^'^ P^^'^^' ^"'i f^^ti^^l^ ^re celebrated.
Collection.) As a rule, they have either no walls at all,
,•-.,,., ^ or discontinuous walls. In Sumatra there
a similar kind of common house where the head-men meet for consultation,
ana travellers can pass the night; many of them are richly adorned with carved
work. In front of the houses of the most respected inhabitants there hangs, under
the roof of the ^«^«-shed, a tom-tom known as tabu, which is beaten on the
occasion of festivals, accidents, and so on. In West Borneo this assembly house,
where the young men sleep, takes the form which elsewhere is unfamiliar to the
Malay style of a circle with a central hearth.
The arrangement of the villages differs according to the civilization. Forest
r. P?r^" f ^^""^ ^ tendency to isolated habitation, and accordingly in
tne ^hihppines the single homestead or bario is distinguished from the village or
rancherta. We find the forest nomads' dislike of the plains no less among the
W egritos and Ilongotes of Luzon than among the Lubus of Sumatra. The Battaks,
witn their highly developed terrace cultivation, can more easily remain in the
DRSSS, WEAPONS, AND OTHER PROPERTY OF THE MALAYS 427
mountains than the Dyaks, with their passion for clearing a new rice-field every
year or two. Yet even within narrow limits the position of the villages varies.
In the Sindang and Roepit districts of Central Sumatra, the inhabited districts lie
close to the mountains or actually among them. On the upper Ravas and its
tributaries the mountain country is quite uninhabited ; the Tagals build almost
solely by the water, the neighbouring tribes only in the mountains. The maritime
Malays and Bugises have notably furnished the coast tracts and lowlands with a
dense population of colonists. Since European dominion has spread over almost
every district of the archipelago, the population has increased very much both in
number and distribution. The extent of the villages holds no proportion to the
number of the people, agriculture does not permit of the growth of large settle-
ments. In general a good deal of land belongs to a house ; thus in Padang you
must travel 2\ to 3 miles from the landing-place before reaching the last houses.
The Igorrote rancheries of Luzon, in a mountain country with very extensive
fields, seldom contain, according to Dr. Hans Meyer, more than 250 inhabitants.
In the cities where Europeans have not represented the interests of sanitation, the
Chinese and Further Indian system of packing together has prevailed.
Agriculture among all the Malay tribes is primarily concerned with rice ;
maize came, later into association with it in some districts — the Philippines, for
instance — as the crop second in importance. The very breeding of cattle is
connected with rice-farming, since the buffaloes work in the marshy fields. Even
where cultivation is scanty, one always finds paddy-fields in the swampy bottoms.
Elsewhere mountain-rice is grown on dry ground ; besides this crop the Ilongotes
of Luzon live only on maize and edible roots. The nomad Lubus of Sumatra,
too, grow rice and maize. In the eastern parts of the archipelago, onward from
Borneo, sago is held in increasing esteem, until we find it the chief crop in the
Moluccas and New Guinea. Beside this, tobacco is met with in the heart of
Borneo, as well as among the mountain tribes of northern Luzon. Widely spread,
also, are the sugar-palm {arenga), the sugar-cane, plantains, caladium, sweet potato,
and tapioca. As a food-stuff the sweet potato stands close after rice. Palms,
papaws, durians, and other fruit trees, make the villages in the cultivated parts of
Formosa, Java, Sumatra, and Celebes, into verdant orchard-landscapes. Apart
from European influence, the Battaks stand highest as agriculturists. The
magnificent terrace-farming of the natives of Java, Bali, and Lombok, though in
great measure of Indian origin, has only its present high development under
Dutch rule. The Battaks in the highlands of Sumatra even use a plough, the
share of which, a straight, rather narrow, iron blade, is set in a wooden handle.
There is a simple pole with a wooden yoke for one or two buffaloes. The Tobah
Battaks claim to have invented this plough ; at any rate, they had all the
essentials for it. A similar plough in South Celebes, where Wallace saw also a
rude wooden barrow in operation, has the share of hard palm-wood. For breaking
the clods the Battaks use a wooden club. In former times the Battaks devoted
themselves to agriculture on a more extended scale ; wide tracts of cleared forest-
land indicate their places of abode in Sumatra. Now, however, they are in fact
more stationary than the Dyaks, although they carry on cattle-breeding as well.
In some districts they also manure the fields, carrying dung to them in baskets,
or leading. the drainage from the cow-houses over the land. In the eastern
archipelago there is no such practice.
428
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Quite apart from the plantation of coffee, tea, sugar-cane, and spices, — which
the Dutch have made compulsory upon the Javanese, and the people of Padang
and the fruitful Minahassa country, as the Spaniards have done in the Philippines
in regard to tobacco, Manilla hemp, and cacao, — we find that the indigenous agricul-
ture, and above all that of rice, shows marked gradations. It had obviously, even
before the European time, perhaps even before the Indian time, been greatly
advanced by reason of a higher civilization in the Western Archipelago. Java,
Sumatra, and the Philippines, in which sixty different species of rice are known,
stand higher in this respect than the rest of the islands. Battaks and Dyaks live
mainly by agriculture ; but among the Battaks the rice is grown in fields laid out
artificially in terraces, and irrigated by means of long water-leats ; while the
Dyaks, owing to deficient irrigation, have to lay out new fields every two years
Hoes from (i) Singapore ; {2) Sumatra — one-fourth real size. (Munich Museum.)
in grubbed-up forest-land. And yet the Battaks do not represent the highest
point attained ; this is found in the remote little-visited Nias Archipelago, off the
coast of Sumatra, which was probably colonised by the Battaks. Among the
Tinguians and Igorrotes of Luzon, rice farming stands at a high level, with its
arrangement for flooding the ground, and dams against inundations. It is most
meagre in the east, where it comes into contact, as in Timorlaut, with the more
popular sago gathering. Hard labour does not end with the harvest. The daily
task of the women begins with the pounding of the rice, which is kept in the
husk. Even before sunrise it can be heard far and wide, like thrashing with us ;
and as with us the village pump is the centre of gossip and jokes, so here is the
rice-pounding. The mortars are pieces of tree-stem placed upright ; the pestles,
heavy spars of wood, perhaps i o feet in length ; but occasionally rice is pounded
in holes made in the rock. Afterwards the rice is cleansed by winnowing in four-
cornered troughs of wood. The man does not, as a rule, begin his day's work
till after his first meal, which takes place at 7 or 8 o'clock ; but on an emergency,
he may have already done a couple of hours' work in the paddy field. In the
Dyak villages of South-east Borneo, the scene becomes lively every morning
BJiESS, WEAPONS, AND OTHER PROPERTY OF THE MALAYS 429
about 7 o'clock, where men, women, and half-grown boys go out fully armed to
work. Here, besides rice, maize, sugar-cane, and plantains are grown in gardens
near the houses. At sunset they return, the men bearing firewood, the women
the produce of the fields ; and the latter have then to set to work at pounding rice
and filling the bamboo water-vessels. Only old persons, and those who are
occupied in house or boat-building, remain at home. Rice-growing demands
much toil. The sowing is done
upon rafts covered with earth,
which keep the germs constantly
moist ; then the young plants
are transferred to the fields, the
hoeing of which forms an im-
portant branch of the woman's
labour. A more diiificult task
is the protection of the fields
against the depredation of wild
swine and rats.
Beside the mandau, with
which brushwood is cleared and
straw cut, a great instrument
of agriculture is the hoe. The
iron blade is fastened by sinews
or bark thongs wrapped cross-
wise into a stock of hard wood,
which often forms its means of
attachment to the long curved
handle, frequently ornamented.
The women work with a small
knife, and the Igorrotes reap
their rice stalk by stalk with
a little sickle-shaped knife. Resin
is collected for stopping chinks
in wooden boxes, and for the
preparation of torches ; gutta-
percha, and wax from wild bees'
nests ; in some districts also
edible birds' nests. Rattan is
also cut,an indispensable material
in hut and boat-building, and in the manufacture of many articles of furniture ;
so much coveted too, as an article of trade, that the chiefs of Borneo had a
monopoly of it.
What rice is to the Western Malays, sago is to the Eastern. Even m ^orth
Borneo it is the chief produce of the Milanos. The palm forests are communal
property, and felling the sago palm may only be performed m pursuance of a
communal resolution. The stem is split with a sword, the pith cut out with a hoe,
and broken small with a stone club. Leaves stitched together form the bucket ;
cylindrical leaf-stalks, placed one below another, make a system of washing taps ;
and a sieve is made of bast. In Ceram, one man can in this way prepare in a
Battak hoes from Sumatra— one-seventh real size. (Leipzig
Museum of Ethnology. )
43°
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
month so much sago that the half of it will keep him for a year, and with the
rest he can buy knives and finery. The surplus of East Ceram provides for a
whole number of neighbouring islands. Wallace calculates the cost of a man's
victuals in this land of sago at twelve shillings a year.
Harvest festivals hold a prominent position — among many tribes the most
prominent. The Maanjans of Borneo offer sacrifices so soon as the first rice is
ripe. Some of it is sent into the village ; a fowl is killed ; the whetstone and
Javanese buffalo-cart. (From a photograph. )
other implements of field-work are symbolically fed, and a small carouse is held.
In every house a fowl or a pig is sacrificed, when, at the November planting-
season, a little bird called sinrik (probably a kind of wagtail), which goes north
in April, first reappears ; it is regarded as the messenger of the good spirits.
To cattle-breeding, nature has drawn narrow limits ; nor are the Malays (to
whom we can safely attribute, as their original domestic animals, only pigs, fowls,
and dogs, with the subsequent though early addition of buffaloes), save with few
exceptions, a cattle-breeding race. Even those who have cattle and horses in
plenty, as in Tobah, plough only with buffaloes. It may be said that only the
Battaks devote much industry to their herds of cows, buffaloes, and pigs ; though
even they do not in most places milk either cows or buffaloes. In recent times,
however, the breeding of oxen has increased in Bali ; while the ponies and cavalry
horses of Tobah have for some time formed an article of export from Sumatra
BJiESS, WEAPONS, AND OTHER PROPERTY OF THE MALAYS 431
and Sumba. Buffaloes are kep{ for the sake of the rice farms, even where there
are no oxen. In addition to pigs, fowls, and dogs, with an occasional stumpy-
tailed cat, which form the main stock of domestic animals, goats are found
in the highlands. Some Dyak and Philippine tribes breed dogs for food, and the
Igorrotes are said to do the same by horses. With the Tagals, the Balinese, and
the Sassaks, duck-rearing is an important business ; but there must be some mis-
understanding about the tale told of the Malays of Malacca, that their women
suckle monkeys, fatten them, and eat them. Besides, the inhabitants of the
animal-frequented forest regions are very fond of domesticable animals.
A result of this abundance of animals is that every large island possesses
its hunting tribes. Bezoary stones, rhinoceros
ri ^,„„,=-^^^^M. hornb, tigers' galls, are by Malay, and still
'^Slr^lL^Cr^B=!>«>^"'^ ^^^ moie b)' Chmese superstition stamped as
(i) Wooden tureen and spoon from Luzon— one-third real size. (From Dr. Meyer's Collection) ;
(2) Sumatran saddle. {Dresden Museum. )
valuable elements in magic apparatus. For the larger hunting parties, several
families combine. The great nets of abaca (Manilla hemp), ten yards long
by one and a half wide, are stretched between the trees, so that the game
when driven may take one direction, where the hunters are ambushed with
javelins, arrows, and dogs. They have no lack of pluck ; Beccari knew a
tiger-hunter who had by himself brought down fourteen head. But in the
cultivated regions of Java and Luzon there are agricultural tribes who know
almost nothing of the chase. The Malays are masters in the art of setting
traps. Six several kinds of Dyak traps have been described by Skertchly as
bridges or platforms, arches, gangways. Many traps have two falls, which drop
simultaneously, so that the tiger can neither get out nor reach the bait. Others
are of the nature of walled pits, widening to the bottom. For the capture of the
savage Carabao buffalo, the Ilongotes bend a stout branch, and by means of
rattan twigs form it into a lasso trap. Even the poor Negritos of East Luzon
own sporting dogs. Birds are caught with nets and limed twigs ; and among the
432
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Maanjans of Borneo, during the rainy season, almost the whole time of a man is
taken up in catching a small but savoury parrot, Palceornis longicauda, in arranging
the decoy bird, weaving cages, and preparing the bird-lime. The Bugises pursue
the stag on horseback in thoroughly sportsmanlike style.
Fishing is carried on with hooks, creels, spears, nets — -though these are avoided
in the neighbourhood of coral reefs — and
also with stupefying drugs. Dried, smoked
or salted fish, form a great article of trade,
especially in the Philippines ; and fishing-
grounds are often let by the chiefs at a
high rent. Deep-sea fishing is carried
on by the Malays of the coast ; who also
devote themselves to turtle-catching and
the gathering of edible birds' nests and
trepang. On the Andamans, where only
Cyrena is now eaten, the shell -heaps or
" kitchen -middens" contain Area and
oyster-shells.
Vegetable food preponderates — rice
in the west, sago elsewhere. Fish comes
next ; meat is by many persons eaten
only on festive occasions. Owing to their
preference of a shore life, sea products,
even down to star -fish, are a favourite
Beside the Mussulman laws as to feeding, there are ancient indigenous
Dish-cover of armadillo scales from Sumatra-
tenth real size. (Stockholm Museum. )
probably, as among Australians and
food.
rules, not accurately known, which
Polynesians, are connected
with tribal organisation.
Thus the Mandangos of
Borneo will not eat game.
The Tagals are said to have
learnt from the Chinese to
eat eggs that have been sat
upon, with the chick in them,
as tit-bits.
Betel chewing is found
all over this region. In well-
to-do houses it is reckoned
as a courtesy to set before
the visitor the elegant lane-
jang or case for the imple- Dish-cover from South-east Borneo (Stockholm Museum. )
ments required for this pur-
pose. It may be unknown in some out-of-the-way parts, but it is far more
general than tobacco^ smoking, which is forbidden to the Bajus, and is not
practised in the island of Ceram. The Tagals, however, and nearly all
Mussulman Malays, are passionately fond of tobacco. " Hubble-bubbles " are
made in Borneo with a small piece of hard ironwood, the water to cool the smoke
being placed in a bamboo. In Luzon, the tobacco-pipes are made after the
DRESS, WEAPONS, AND OTHER PROPERTY OF THE MALAYS 433
Chinese pattern, to hold a plug of tobacco not larger than a bean. In the interior
of Borneo, of the outer Moluccas, and of Timor, the tobacco plant is cultivated
without European intervention such as has made Luzon, Java, and Sumatra into
headquarters of tobacco growing ; and everywhere tobacco is a coveted article of
commerce. The Dyaks fill great cornets of green plantain-leaf with fine-cut
tobacco ; and it is, as a rule, the business of the women to smoke these cigars.
When the laborious task is accomplished, the remainder is moistened with saliva
and made into balls of the size of a pigeon's egg. Opium smoking has been so
widely disseminated by the Chinese, that in 1893 the Dutch colonial government
(i) Bamboo betel and tobacco boxes from West Sumatra — one-third real size. (Munich Museum.)
(a) Igorrote spindle — one-third real size. (From Dr. Meyer's Collection.)
drew 18,500,000 guilders for the sale and farming of the drug, more than 90 per
cent of which came from Java and Madura. Even among the Battaks, opium
smoking is beginning to produce an enervating effect. On the other, betel chewing
is on the increase among the Chinese.
Spirituous drinks existed originally only in limited measure. Palm wine was
indeed largely in use, and slightly alcoholic drinks from rice or sugar-cane ; but
over large districts, as in Borneo or Sumatra, one seldom sees the natives drink
anything but coco-nut milk or water. These races do not make much use of
coffee, but prefer an infusion of coffee leaves. The Chinwans of Formosa brew a
fermented drink from rice or millet ; the yeast being replaced by rice meal which
has been chewed by an old woman.
The Malay races are acquainted with the use and preparation of iron, though
2 F
434
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Tobacco pipes used by the Igorrotes and Guinans of Luzon-
size. (Dr. Meyer's Collection. )
-two-thirds real
cast.
at the present day much foreign iron is worked in their countries, and the iron
spear, as among the exile tribes of Luzon, is a weapon of luxury. In the Dyak
country, famous for its weapons, Bock could nowhere see a mine or a smelting
furnace,^ nor could he
suggest whence the
raw material for the
weapons was actually
brought. In Sumatra
deserted ironworks
are known, though
to-day the Battaks
work none but foreign
iron. In Menang-
kabau, on the other
hand, iron is smelted
in furnaces two yards
high and three wide;
there gun-barrels are
welded and cannon
Iron and copper ores are worked by the application of iire. In Ban-
jermassing and Palembang, there is a large and flourishing manufacture of arms,
the iron for which
is fetched by prefer-
ence from Celebes and
Timor. This rivals in
its damascened blades
the most renowned
workshops of the
East. For damascen-
ing, a special quality
of iron is imported into
Borneo, for example,
from Celebes, and the
processes of welding
it with common iron
and of etching are
executed with the
greatest care. The
Malays of Sarawak,
in Borneo, also are
clever workers in iron,
and no less those of
the south-east coast, where Nagara is the seat of great arsenals. In Brunei and
Sarawak, brass and gold are likewise wrought. The Battaks are cleverer at
copper than at iron work, in which even the savage Dyaks surpass them. The
Igorrotes formerly carried on copper mining actively, the mining claims being
strictly delimited. The inhabitants of Banca do not understand how to prepare
^ [Schwaan, however, appears to have seen the process.]
Carved wooden sirih box from Deli, East Sumatra-
(From a drawing. )
-one-fourth real size.
l>Ji£SS, WEAPONS, AND OTHER PROPERTY OF THE MALAYS 435
iron, while their next neighbours are familiar with the process. The manipu-
lation of the bellows, made of bamboo tubes on the system of the double
pump, is the same as in India and Africa ; but, besides this, Dr. Hans Meyer
saw in an Igorrote smithy a bellows consisting of two hollowed tree -stems,
with pipes opening on the ground. For instruments Martens found in a
Malay smithy in Borneo, hammer, chisel, gouge, and axe, but not pincers.
For hammers and axes the iron is fixed in the wooden handle with nothing but
split rattan ; and for the handle a branching piece is selected, the iron being fixed
in the main branch cut off short, while the some-
what weaker side-bough serves as handle. Gold
was obtained plentifully in the archipelago in pre-
(i) Malay loom (from a photograph) ; (2) Sack carried by the Igorrotes of Luzon— one-eighth real size.
(Dr. Meyer's Collection.)
European times. The Malays of the western islands like to use gold in the most
various ornaments ; even among the Battaks clever gold and silver smiths make
filigree. Beside damascening they practise the overlaying of the steel, when hot,
with gold, which is then impressed. In Amboyna and Buru, the words for gold
and silver are Javanese ; so that these metals would appear to have been brought
hither in later times from the west.
Spinning and weaving are very common. Distaff and spindle resemble their
European kindred. Even the Dyaks make excellent cloth from cotton on the
simple upright loom, which, put together from a few sticks, leans at an angle
against the wall of the house. The Battaks even know how to weave in gold
threads. But the work demands much time. Wallace estimates the progress
made in weaving a narrow sarong by a countrywoman in South Celebes at one
inch per diem. In Surabaya and Macassar there is a great textile industry which
is connected with artistic dyeing. The patterns are left colourless and drawn upon
with liquid wax {batik industry) ; or the cloths have pieces of banana-leaf sewn
upon them, and are artfully folded, the whole being dipped in various dyes ; so
436 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
that astonishing designs result. Java furnishes the black sarongs which the
genuine Malay loves ; Macassar, coloured cloth ; Padang, the skndjangs or shawls
with their charming patterns, often stitched with gold and silver threads, which the
women use as head-coverings. Plaited baskets, pouches, and hats from the fibre
of pandanus or certain palms reach even the markets of Europe. The " manilla-
hemp " or abaca {Musa textilis), was cultivated in Luzon before Europeans came.
Bark stuffs, the use of which has much decreased in the last century, are prepared
especially by tribes in Sumatra and Borneo ; while the stuffs of Celebes attain the
perfection of the Polynesian tapa, as thin as paper. The Malayan tapa is thick,
more like leather or tinder.
All Malays make pottery, but without special aptitude. Some make the
vessels of clay, hollowed out and worked with a piece of metal. As a rule they
are insufficiently burnt, and the things remain soft. Yet in some places there are
great tileries and potteries. Among the Igorrotes, according to Hans Meyer,
pottery seems to be the only handicraft, besides smith's work, that is carried on in
a business-like way. The procelain cups and vases of China and Japan are highly
valued. Vessels of bamboo stand to earthenware pots in the position of less
perishable domestic utensils, and they do quite well to boil rice in. The Igorrotes
have remarkable wooden platters with a large cavity for the food and a smaller
for the salt. Tabelo has a speciality of making coco-nut oil.
There are real industrial centres, where one industry has begotten another.
Thus Nagara, on the south-east coast of Borneo, has a reputation for its manufac-
ture of weapons, and at the same time for its pottery, its shipbuilding, and its
mat-weaving. Ilocos is distinguished for its cloth, which provides northern Luzon
with its " Ilocos mantles." But all tribes are not equally active in trade ; among
the Battaks and other Sumatrans it is left to the women ; while the Lubus are
quite passive.
The great development of seafaring limits the area of internal trade. Since
there are few navigable rivers, and beasts of burden are little used, everything is
carried, almost exclusively by women, in open carrying-frames of rattan, in water-
tight baskets, or in sack-like wallets supported by a band round the forehead ;
whether homeward from the fields or to market. The trade is principally barter.
Even in the remote parts of Central Borneo, and on the Tobah Plateau, the larger
villages have their weekly markets in the open air — a combination of business
and cock-fighting. They begin early, and are over long before noon. In many
districts the market-days succeed each other in a regular order from place to place.
These countries, at any rate in so far as they have felt Indian influence, must at
some time have had better roads than the " mouse-tracks " of to-day ; otherwise
the grand buildings of Java and Sumatra would be inconceivable.
With Dutch influence, Dutch money is mostly current in Malay regions ; but
the Battaks of the highlands recognise only the genuine Spanish peso ; on the
frontier, however, we find also the Mexican. In Lombok, only Chinese coppers
are taken in payment. Besides these, gold coins are in demand for purposes of
ornament ; English sovereigns from the Australian mint fetch flfteen guilders in
Borneo. The cleverness of the Malays in counterfeit coining points perhaps
to Chinese training.
THE MALAY FAMILY, COMMUNITY, STATE A37
§ 19. THE MALAY FAMILY, COMMUNITY, STATE
Courtship and wedding — Various kinds of bride-purchase — Wedding ceremonies — Position of the wife — The
family and the tribe — Exogamy and polygamy — Forms of kinship — Birth and bringing-up — Political import-
ance of the tribe — Sukus and similar institutions — The State : prevalence of small independent communities ;
despotism or anarchy? — Examples of the sovereign's position in Acheen and Sulu — Preponderance of
village aristocracy — Chiefs insignia — Political conditions in Bali — Landownership — Slavery — Colonisation
— International relations — War and peace — Head- hunting ; its psychological and historical motives —
Cannibalism — Legal matters ; law and penalties ; ordeals ; secret societies ; the Pamali, Fadi, or Fosso —
Death and burial — Funeral ceremonies.
Among the Malay tribes marriage is based almost entirely on purchase, and
the wife is often called " the bought one." Where the number of women admits
of it, polygamy is customary, if only as being encouraged by Islam, which is fast
gaining ground. Yet among all the simpler tribes people are content with one
wife, and here and there the polygamist allows himself one wife in his own village
and others abroad. Exogamy and inheritance by the mother are represented, but
admit of exceptions, — cases in which ignorance or disregard of marriage are due
to insufficient observation.
In Luzon, parts of Borneo, and Sumatra the purchase of a bride is a simple
affair; the Ilongote youth has to serve in the house of the bride and to
provide pigs and fowls for the wedding feast. A Lubu used to give the bride's
father a blow-gun with quiver and arrows, the principal weapons of that people,
and in addition offered a dog or, if he wished to do it in style, a pig for the
banquet. Now instead of this it is a fowl, a measure of rice, and a small sum in
money ; besides this the bridegroom has to assist his father-in-law for a certain
period in his work. It is otherwise in places where distinction of ranks and
capital have created wider demands. The price paid among people of the
middle class in Halmahera amounts to eighty Dutch guilders, among rich
people in Timorlaut even to one thousand. Besides this, weapons and dishes, in
other places cattle, in Sulu even boats, cannons, and slaves are presented. In
order that the wife may retain a certain amount of dependence, it is occasionally
thought polite to leave a small part of the sum unpaid, but more often the wife
defrays the cost of the marriage and the husband gives a present, in which case
both sides are equal ; or else the man gives nothing at all, and thereby passes into
a state of dependence on the wife's family— in the island of Nias even into a
kind of debt-slavery. All these varieties of marriage are found in Menangkabau ;
the Battaks have the first and last form, but among the Lampongs of Sumatra
the last is regarded as disgraceful. Divorce shows corresponding differences ; if
much has been paid for the bride the wife has to buy back the children ; but a
fixed sum of twenty-five to one hundred guilders is also agreed upon in presence
of witnesses before the marriage, and this, in the event of divorce, has to be paid
by the guilty party. The most decisive ground for separation is sterility.
The great importance attached to marriage by purchase is, among the more
progressive and richer tribes, the cause of such conspicuous incongruities that so
long as one hundred years ago it was indicated as the most fertile source oi
litigation. In Menangkabau it is possible to exchange a daughter-in-law tor a
daughter. By paying the difference she can be given in marriage by those to
438 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
whom she has been tjransferred as though she had been their own daughter. If
the wife goes to her husband he is liable to answer for her in every respect, while
she loses the right of inheritance in her own family ; if, as is the more usual case,
the man goes to the wife, her family has to answer for her. The father is indeed
bound to provide for his children under age ; but since they do not inherit from
him, they are not responsible for his debts, and without the consent of his future
heirs he can make them no presents except clothing. If the sum which is
demanded for the bride appears to the bridegroom's friends exorbitant, while
at the same time there is mutual inclination, they carry the bride off. The
parents go out with arms to seek her, but after executing a mimic fight, they come
to an agreement about the sum to be paid as indemnity or jujur. This is
subsequently alleged in public from motives of ostentation to have been higher
than it actually was. Many customs bear the stamp of the notion that the wife
is the husband's property ; thus the Rejangs, when escorting the bride from the
paternal house, tread on her big toe.
Corruptions of marriage such as are certain to come about under these con-
ditions are met with especially among some Dyaks of Borneo.- ^ The immorality
of the priestesses in no way prejudices their chances of marriage ; among the
Alfurs of the coast of Ceram recognised prostitution exists, and the young girls,
called dojaro, have a captain over them. There is an important traffic in the
much sought-after girls of Nias from Padang to Chinese places and to Acheen.
The ease with which Malay women form transitory alliances with foreigners has
borne its part in their rapid fusion with strangers. Nearly all the so-called
Chinese women in Banca are half breeds from Malayan mothers.
Exogamic marriage is very general. In the hill country of Padang no man
marries in his own suku, or among the Battaks in his own marga. Similarly
in Nias, Ceram, Buru, and Timor, the intending bridegroom is bidden to go
outside his tribe. Inheritance through the mother is a frequent concomitant.
Among the Padang Malays the child always belongs to its mother's suku, and
all blood-relationship is reckoned through the wife as the real transmitter of the
family ; the husband being only a stranger. For this reason his heirs are not his
own children but the children of his sister, his brothers, and other uterine-relations ;
children are the natural heirs of their mother only. Traces of this system are to
be found among the Rejangs and Battaks of Sumatra. It is, however, to be
observed that this everywhere applies to regular marriage only ; in such connec-
tions as partake of the nature of concubinage the principle of partus sequitur
ventrem, as might be expected, holds good. We may assume that wherever
exogamy is now found co-existing with inheritance through the father (as among
Rejangs and Battaks, the people of Nias and Timor, or the Alfurs of Ceram
and Buru) this was formerly through the mother ; and that the other system has
grown up out of dislike to the inconveniences arising from the insecure and
dependent position of the husband in the wife's family. With inheritance
through the father is connected the custom of marrying a brother's widow.
For if the wife has become incorporated in her husband's family, it is they who
have to look after her when she is a widow. Hence in Rejang there was a
chief with seven wives, five of whom were the widows of his deceased brothers.
The order of succession to the father is, first the children — of whom in Halmahera
the eldest takes the household furniture, the younger the landed property — then
THE MALAY FAMILY, COMMUNITY, STATE 439
brothers, sisters, nephews, and nieces. In this system the wife comes off worst.
Having been purchased, she cannot inherit from her husband ; while, by leaving
her paternal home, she has given up all claims upon it, and cannot inherit these
either. Hence exogamy and patriarchate as a rule imply the exclusive succession
of the male relations by blood.
Courtship is often quite free, prompted by purely human sentiment, and
without words ; though business considerations sometimes claim a place. In
Sulu the bride is often offered for sale. In Halmahera the lads used to intimate
their feelings to the girls at the festival dances, by appropriating some of the
flowers or feathers which decked their heads. The right of the stronger pre-
vailed here, and no young man attended the feast without sword and shield ; but
here too the age is grown more peaceable. A few nights afterwards the fortunate
wooer will go with his solepa, or one-stringed guitar, to the house where the
maiden of his choice is sleeping, and standing outside by the wall, will perform
his serenade. At first the tune expresses a modest entreaty ; then, if affection
springs up, the melody changes, and he prays the maiden to twist him an
arm-ring of bark. -On her side, she requests him to cut her out a piece of paper
wherewith to adorn her betel-box ; and with that the suit is formally introduced.
But the youth may neither see the maiden of his choice nor make any more
advances ; the penalty for so doing would be a heavy fine, or obhgation to marry at
once under conditions imposed by her relations. If the courtship is to be published,
the girl is awakened some evening by a friend of her suitor's, who either pulls
her hair or introduces his finger-nail under hers. This happens again the next
evening, but this time the suitor has come too. He sits modestly on the floor
behind the door of her bedroom ; she conceals herself in token that his request
is granted. The rest light torches and go about as though searching for thieves.
When the suitor is discovered, they invite him to chew betel with them. If he
acts upon their invitation, the maiden is lost to him ; so he remains sitting with
bowed head. This process is repeated on the two following evenings ; not till
the fourth does the wedding festivity begin with the offer of betel, which again
is surrounded with a mass of ceremonies. In Timorlaut the whole courtship has
shrunk into a demand for betel, and the presentation of that highly-esteemed
luxury. If the maiden grant the youth's request for sirih, his suit is heard, and
the two live in a state of probationary association till the dowry is settled.
Wedding festivities vie in pomp and duration with those which accompany
funerals. The feast is held in the bride's house ; the best pig is sacrificed where
the family is heathen, and the guests invoke celestial protection to chase ^ away
evil spirits. At Rau on the west coast of Sumatra, where the wedding is got
through in one day, the bridegroom, before asking for the bride's hand, makes three
ceremonial evening calls in company with his friend, the lady receiving him with
hers. The guests present jzWA and are entertained, while bridegroom and bride
converse in poetry to the accompaniment of a tambourine. The mother-in-law
does not appear till the third occasion, and then bride and bridegroom eat
off the same plate, the lady putting the food to the gentleman's mouth. Then,
and not till then, is the object of the visit declared ; and if this is done in m-
sufficiently clear terms, it means that the gentleman wishes to withdraw his suit.
Among the Maanjans of Borneo, people go on the wedding day, often with
presents, to the bride's house, to ask if the bridegroom may draw near. Then
440 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
he advances with his relations, a copper dish being borne before them. This is
placed upon another, whereon lies an egg which is broken and mingled with the
blood of a hen or pig killed over the dish. After the banquet the happy pair
are smeared with the mixture. This smearing, which is the operative part of the
ceremony, is performed with a piece of silver or iron. It begins at the soles of
the feet, proceeding in order to the knees, the pit of the stomach, the hands,
elbows, shoulders, breast, forehead, and spine, a special form of words being used
to avert bad luck or bring good. The young pair remain nine days in the
bride's house, five with the parents of the bridegroom ; then he either begins to
build a new house, or goes to one belonging to his father or mother. Among
the Trings the young man, after his present has been accepted, works for some
time for the father of his intended, and then gives her two slaves. A third
present of rice, fowls, and pigs, is made to the mother-in-law immediately before
marriage. Here too the couple sit near the copper dish and are smeared with
the blood of a victim ; on the second day they bathe together in public, and on
the fourth they go, holding a piece of rattan as a symbol of life, in search of an
edible fruit, from which, when it is dressed, they ascertain their- destiny.
Here and there the bride likes to hide herself to make a show of aversion to
wedlock, or to seeing the bridegroom for the first night after marriage, or to
being caught asleep, together with her kinsfolk, by the bridegroom on the
wedding-day. Among the Alfurs of Halmahera the young man spends four
nights with his bride without speaking of the marriage. When the dowry is
arranged he sleeps in her room, but is not allowed a sight of her before the dawn.
During this period presents and return presents and porcelain dishes pass to and
fro, brought by deputations from the kinsfolk and friends, and on every occasion
there is great festivity. The bridegroom is entitled to seize the bride, but he
avoids doing so, as though the custom had fallen into disrepute. The concluding
ceremony of betrothal consists in the preparation of a meal by the bride with a
ceremonial form of words. Where the custom has been brought into harmony
with Islam little is expected, at most a visit to the mosque on the wedding-day
and a small tribute for the priest, all subsequent marriages being simply purchase.
In Timorlaut, a boy and a girl, as symbols of the blessings of offspring, are
placed between the couple at the wedding feast, while among the Tinguians of
Luzon a boy sleeps the first night between the newly married pair.
The position of women is in general by no rneans low ; among Mussulmans
indeed she is less well off than among the heathens. Writing of Timorlaut,
Riedl says, " The husband never beats the wife ; it is quite the other way."
There are variations also in this, but in all respects the woman is highly valued ;
in the blood-tariffs many a woman is valued higher than a man, the proportion
among the Rejangs of Sumatra being as 150 to 80 ; only the highest chiefs are
superior to their wives. The purchase money of a bride is accordingly no cheap
business ; if marriage was a mere matter of purchase, the wife would become the
husband's property, and after his death she and her children would become the
property of his heirs. The social position of the wife is raised where both sides
bear the cost of the wedding, and it is best of all where the marriage is concluded
on the basis of ambil anak. Here indeed the husband pays nothing, but is liable
to render service and has no right to the children. This method was chiefly in use
when only one daughter remained of a family and the family had to be preserved
THE MALAY FAMILY, COMMUNITY, STATE 441
through her marriage, but it gave rise to so much litigation that it was forbidden
among the Rejangs. Connected with the varying ratio that prevails between
marriage by purchase and social position is the higher position of the woman
which we find among the Maanjans of Borneo, among whom no betrothal is
concluded before the youth and the maiden are agreed. The young man,
however, does not pay any dowry, his expenses consisting of a few guilders paid to
the witnesses, of which the bride contributes half.
Female sovereigns occur among the Dyaks, but only in isolated cases. Very
little weight can be attached to the appearance of women in popular legends as
founders of dynasties, it is merely the cosmogonic idea of the earth as the original
' mother. Priestesses in the same way are the mainstay of the most immoral
customs ; we cannot look for any enhancement of the dignity of the female sex
in their position. But we may account among the signs of woman's higher
position the heavy penalties with which adultery was visited before the time of
the disintegrating influence of Islam and Europe. Among the Acheenese the
wife's relations make a circle around the guilty man and give him a weapon
wherewith he may make his way out ; if he succeeds in doing so he is all right,
if not he is hewn in pieces and buried on the spot. By the laws of the Rejangs
heavy fines were inflicted for concubinage, illegitimate births, and even births
following too soon after the conclusion of the marriage ; a similar disposition pre-
vailed in Celebes. Foreign influence has caused adultery to be lightly regarded
among the Tagals of Luzon, but the Igorrotes who remained untouched by it
severely punished indiscretion on the part of girls, and beheaded adulteresses,
though now, according to Hans Meyer, they take a more lenient view of the
offence. In Sulu the Spaniards saw adulteresses put in irons for life. The death
of the husband does not merely set the wife free ; in Sahu she can even leave her
children to the husband's brother and re-enter her own family.
As regards the division of labour between the sexes, the wife helps her husband
in field-work while the house-work falls to her sole share ; in the former, however,
the man takes the hardest part, while reaping is more the wife's business. The
rule is observed here that the more laborious a race the fairer is the division
of labour.
Before the birth of a child the mother has to observe manifold rules involving
the interpretation of omens and the choice of days. Neither she nor the father
may look at a mirror nor into a bamboo tube, as otherwise the child will squint ;
they must not break up tobacco or sirih in the betel bag, but before doing so take
them out. Even the men may not work at a house, nor roof it, nor drive nails in,
nor go in at a door, nor up a ladder, otherwise the child may not be born. Old
women assist at the birth, which often takes place in a hut far from the dwelling ;
then begin the preparations for naming. Among the Dyaks, so far as they are
still head-hunters, the father must first take a head ; among the Ilongotes the
name is not given till the fifth day, in Sahu hot till the ninth year. Beast names
occur recalling those of the tribes. The father gives the name, and especially in
places where the soul of an ancestor is deemed to exist in the child ; then the
father also assigns this ancestral name to himself At the birth of a second son
he takes his name also, so that the more sons the more names. Infanticide is
common, and is specially practised in regard to the second born of a pair of twins.
Entry upon adult age is denoted among some Dyaks by the seclusion in a
442 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
forest house of those who have attained that time of life, also by circumcision or the
adoption of the bark belt. After this the youth has his place in the bachelors'
sleeping-house, and is bound to take a head as soon as may be. Separate sleeping-
houses for girls and youths are very common. Other signs of maturity are
tattooing and teeth-filing. Boys practise themselves with bow and arrow, and,
among the head-hunters, in decapitating straw dummies. Even where weapons are
no longer used by grown-up people, as is the case with the bow in Java, they remain '
as children's playthings. Among the tribes that have grown up in a state of nature,
as is well known, only warlike excellence is inculcated. Girls pass the period of
their first maturity in huts apart ; in Ceram, in cages. Among the Alfurs of that
island they are then, after washing and adorning themselves, anointed with palm-
oil, and made to bite off a piece of banana and fish, which they spit out again.
Teeth-filing and tattooing frequently take place at this time ; or, if neglected, the
omission is retrieved at the first pregnancy. Girls as well as youths are distinguished
from the married people by a ring of white shell on the upper arm. Among the
Western Malays the girls are kept more strictly than in the East. In the former
region they are accompanied by duennas, while in the latter they usually go about
at liberty, especially at the feasts, with their general dances. Thus among the
Alfurs of Halmahera almost every engagement may be traced to the lengthy
dances at funeral feasts. The Battak girl will bathe tranquilly and composedly
before men, who cast down their eyes as they pass ; but to a genuine Mussulman
Malay this would be the height of disgrace.
The basis of the state is the family tie, any developments which extend
beyond this betray their unspontaneous character by indications of foreign origin,
or by their constant tendency to break up again into the old patriarchal elements.
In spite of the depth to which Indian influences have penetrated, strict caste
distinctions do not exist. In Sumatra the old Malay state is built up from the
sukus, that is the families and septs which together compose a tribe, and of which
the heads or pangulus, also called pangkarans, rule the land. As many sukus as
there are in a village, so many pangulus ; and the whole country side is ruled by
the pangulus of its villages in meeting assembled ; as a rule, the dignity passes to
the uterine brother or the sister's son. The chief function of these headmen is
judicial. Besides marks of respect and obedience, they receive a tribute of rice
and presents on festive occasions. The cost of their wedding and funeral is borne
by their subjects ; they can only be deposed for gross violations of law and
tradition. The origin of the sukus, the name of which — meaning a quarter — is
hardly suitable to their great number, remains obscure. But a legend relates that
the people of Tanah-Datar were composed of two tribes which divided into four
branches. Later, when the population increased, many sukus were distinguished
by separate names ; now there are, as a rule, four to six in one village.
Next above the suku, as a larger subdivision of the people, comes the lara, the
position of which is not completely explained as given in historic legend. Perhaps
it must be referred to mutual exogamic marriage between two sukus. Organisa-
tion in pairs is frequently found also in other Malayan districts. Among the
Battaks, where the tribes which have distinctive names are called Margas, the
territorial unit corresponding to the tribe known as Kuria was originally inhabited
by a single marga, but this has been now replaced by duality ; one marga is that
originally in possession, the other is the guest, and the two stand in a position of
THE MALAY FAMILY, COMMUNITY, STATE 443
mutual inter-marriage. Eastward, in Buru and Ceram, the term hena denotes
alike tribe and district, because every district is still inhabited by one particular
tribe.
Among the Alfurs of Halmahera, Ternate, and elsewhere, the to/as, within
which marriage is forbidden to the fourth generation, correspond clearly to the
sukus of the West Malays. If this system appears to have become obliterated in
the Philippines and Formosa, still the dependence of plebeians on plutocrats, the
Abitags and Baknanges, such as Hans Meyer describes it in Benget, recalls the
cases in which a marga holds the position of guest. Among the Lampongs we
may recognise similar principles. Here we meet with a still more perfect refine-
ment of the tribe and village constitution. Every district or marga is made
up of several villages, — seldom more than ten, — is governed by an independent
chief, and named after the tribe. Each village again is divided into a number of
quarters, with a head man in command of each, all the others being subordinate
to the head man of the senior quarter. The foundation of a new quarter requires
the consent of all the chiefs, and until this is given quite a large number of newly-
founded homesteads remain dependent on their founders. Accordingly, here as well
as in the suku constitution, all relations of dependency are regulated according to
the connection of pedigree, for which reason even the sovereign may only address
his subjects as tribesmen while the head of a family calls his children and cousins.
This coincidence of tribe and district is very widely found, the Island of Nias is
all divided into fifteen to twenty-five districts, and the people into a similar
number of tribes.
In Malay countries we find originally village states ; thus in the independent
parts of Formosa the tribes live side by side in villages, and the island of Coram,
less than ten miles in length, is broken up into twelve lordships. Larger king-
doms have arisen in Tagal territory only where Islam has got a footing, as in
Mindanao, Sulu, and the shores of the bay of Manilla. Besides these there were
three kingdoms, vassal to the sultan of Tondo, and over these again strangers
ruled — half-breeds from Malays of Borneo by Negrito women. Similarly, even
among the Malays of Sumatra Javanese have taken a great share in founding more
powerful states like Palembang upon an Indian pattern. For this reason com-
prehensive names for races and countries are often lacking. The Formosans have
no general name for their fellow-islanders, a token of their feeble political develop-
ment which also causes frontiers to remain indistinct. In Malay annals quarrels
about frontiers play an important part. The bond of union is always association
in a tribe; the Maanjans formerly were under Majapahit, then under the
Mussulman kingdom of Martapura, and finally under the sovereignty of the
Dutch. Thus their independence was lost, and with it more than once the local
connection of the tribes, but they have always found each other again. In the
Philippines a chief aim of Spanish statecraft was to break up the old tribal
fellowships and the village states or barangays. The inhabitants of several
harangays were compelled to leave their homes and settle down together in one
place, the new village forming a single commune under the name of a pueblo.
But in the pueblo the members of the same barangay would settle down together,
and so it broke up into fractions retaining the ancient name. Those who had
been dattus were made alcaldes and collectors of the poll-tax. Villainage and
also slavery were done away with, and the chiefs thereby deprived of the
444 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
substantial basis of their influence. Christianity also, by turning ^^ pueblo into
a parish, contributed its share to the weakening of the old organisation. This,
however, is so deeply rooted in tribal sentiment that each clan lives on its own
barangay and treats its own Cabeza with reverence, and it was not until natives
began to be ordained in large numbers that inferiors went over his head ; not,
however, without some loss in the respect paid to the clergy. The villages are
often called by the name of the oldest inhabitant.
The scattered nomad tribes are yet a stage lower ; they, like the gipsies,
recognise only an elected chief, which does not preclude his being chosen by
preference from a special family. The Negrito hordes of Luzon often consist
of only twenty to thirty souls ; they are historic instances of tribes formed by
the breaking up of larger races.
Even in the bigger states the sukus and their pangulus are often conspicuous
as the elements which decide the nature of the community. In the genuine
Malay constitution they are the rulers, while the rajah or sultan is only their
delegate. Hence in most cases the constitution is a transitional stage from the
patriarchal form to a confederated aristocracy tempered by representative elements.
The leader of the tribe is the protector of his subjects, has to redeem them if they
fall into slavery, is allowed to pledge them, draws the chief of his revenue from
money fines, and has control over wood and meadow land if there is no arable.
Even where the sovereign himself has the reins in his hands it is this rank which
supplies the official posts at court and in the country. Below this hereditary
aristocracy, which is also an aristocracy of property, and frequently is sub-
divided into a higher nobility consisting of relations of a former sultan and a
nobility by patent composed of officials and monied classes, stand the people
proper, those who have to work, pay taxes, and render service. Last of all
come the slaves.
According as this fundamental arrangement subsists or has been ruined by
sole monarchy, the Malayan state approaches anarchy or despotism. Thus in
Sulu the dignity of the sultan is only nominal, the real power is in the hands of
the magnates or dattus — among the Lubus of Sumatra the witch-doctors — who
govern the districts and islands as fiefs on a life tenure. This nobility, from
which the ministers also come, forms a council in which the influence of each
dattu, often receiving expression by force of arms, is proportioned to the extent
of his estates and the number of his slaves ; and without the consent of this
council the sultan can issue no orders. Even where the sultanate is hereditary
the understanding that a relative may be nominated as his successor offers a wide
opening to free choice, and the members of the council are all more or less
related to the sultan. All revenues, even the fines, are divided among the whole
government ; the sultan gets only his allotted share, so that he has to send out
his own slaves on trading or plundering expeditions. Monopolies such as that of
coffee, which has made the Rajah of Goa in Celebes a millionaire many times
over, or the tin monopoly enjoyed by Palembang over Banca, can only be
imposed under European protection. More limited sources of revenue are found
in the forming of royal rights such as those of fishing or rattan-cutting. Next
to the inviolable prime minister, who has to superintend all the transactions of the
sultan and the nobles, to the admiral and the minister of justice, stands the
" tribune of the people " ; but his influence is as a rule only recognised so far as
THE MALAY FAMILY, COMMUNITY, STATE 445
it agrees with the views of the dattus. The legal code of the Malays is here
unknown, and the precepts of the Koran are scarcely followed. There exists no
protection for property ; the dattus are fond of carrying off boys and girls ; and a
levy en masse, such as has often terrified the Spanish officials in the Philippines,
affords a gleam of hope, since so long as a war lasts, it forms a check to the
lawless treatment of the non- governing classes. Where this many-headed
despotism prevails, and religious fanaticism does not stir up hatred of foreigners,
European sovereignty is regarded by the lower orders as a deliverance.
Under the corroding influence of Brahminism the little island of Bali is
broken up into nine kingdoms, which by means of four pervading castes, and
through the importance of influential families, encroach upon each other. Within
each little country there are clans, often several in one village, of which the most
numerously represented is predominant, though the others pay no special
obedience to it. Caste sets a number of citizens free from all burdens while
loading others with tasks. But in general the Balinese are tolerant in spite
of the obstinacy with which they have clung to the worship of Siva. To
the dattus of Sulu correspond in Acheen the panglimas or tuwankus, the
hereditary presidents of the sagi sub-divisions, who not only form the sultan's
council, but also elect his successor, and even have authority to depose the
monarch. They are not obliged even to inform the sultan of their arrangements,
while he must not only submit to them at all times, but must, whenever he under-
takes anything, admit the Panglima to his confidence in regard to it. He has to
pay them a yearly compensation for the internal taxes which they collect for
him, his own revenue consists of 5 per cent of the value of all goods which are
imported into the harbour of his capital, as also from the income raised in the
Sagi divisions on imported goods and on the sale of pepper, usually not more
than three or four thousand pounds. In the old Malay states of Sumatra again
the government is an absolute monarchy only in name ; in Sambas the sovereign
is elected by the high council of sixteen, and is at bottom only their president.
On the other hand, in Pontianak and in Secadau the monarchy is absolute in
fact, but the oppression is the same everywhere. The nobles trouble themselves
about nothing but the fines, and practise extortions on the wealthy and prominent
men who act in the same manner by the people. The protection of European
governments has often increased the native princes' means of acquiring power, so
that rulers in Java sought in pompous extravagance a consolation for their lost
independence. Similarly in conquered territories their authority has grown, the
Sultan of Kutei raises ad valorem duties of 10 per cent on imports and exports,
farms out the monopolies of opium and salt, works the coal mines of Pelarung and
Batu-Pangal as part of his prerogative, and is besides the usurious banker of his
subjects, getting an income of a million guilders. Where, as in the case in
Tobah, religious motives allow to the ruler the position of a little pope, we see the
reverse of the shield. In that case the Panglimas depend entirely on the rajah and
are mere officials. The position of this ruler is strengthened by a tone of popular
condescension, especially at festivals ; though the subject approaches his lord
literally grovelling, he may talk with him freely and bring forward his complaints.
Smaller rulers are not sharply distinguished from their subjects either in appear-
ance or in their houses. In Jambi, Veth found the residence of the mighty
sultan marked off from the other houses only by a somewhat broader ladder to
446 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
his pile-built palace. Apart from Java and some part of Celebes and Sumatra,
population in the Indian Archipelago is in no way dense, and for this reason the
rulers are shy of driving their subjects across the frontier by severity. The
enlightened Sultan of Kutei used to send ships to the Amontai district in Borneo
in order to stimulate immigration, paying the debts of the colonists and giving
them free land.
The insignia of chiefship are in their original form simple. Among the
Tobah-Battaks the rajahs wear ivory rings on the upper arm ; ornamental
weapons, silver-mounted daggers and swords, or guns with costly stocks, are also
given to messengers as their credentials. Among the princes who have felt the
influence of Indian Mohammedanism heavy gold crowns richly jewelled, and gold-
embroidered uniforms are usual.
The tribes have the use of the land, but the prince claims the ownership of
it whenever he is strong enough to do so. Uncultivated land is common, but
any one can cultivate it on his own account, and make it into property by his
labour. In Timorlaut there is no such thing as sale of land, whereas Battak
chiefs sell their land in every form. In Holontalo sale and demise of landed
property can only take place with the chiefs consent. The right of the tribe to
the ownership of the soil is stoutly maintained. An attempt on the part of the
Dutch to move some tribes in Borneo lower down their river failed, because
the people feared that the descendants of the Dyaks, who had formerly been
settled there, would demand tribute from them, as they were entitled to do. If
no heirs are forthcoming, the property is voted by the people to one of the
head-men. Individuals certify their right to property by hanging up dolls. A
branch which overhangs another man's land belongs to him.
Colonisation, in the form of conquest and settlement beyond seas, plays,
especially in the east, a part reminding us in its importance of the Greek
migrations. It would hardly be possible to name a race, however small, the
traditions of which are not based upon a migration, and every coast-district shows
foreign elements which have made their way in uninvited, and often to the
detriment of the older populations. Numerous legends tell of fraternal dissen-
sions, sicknesses, or elemental catastrophes, as the causes of colonisation. Rights
of conquest were granted by the rulers of Ternate to noble families, and these
became viceroys with semi -sovereign power, in Buru, Ceram, and elsewhere.
Colonisation was also regulated in the country itself In Java, where, as the
population increased, clearings had to be made at points lying too far from a
village, a party of settlers was sent out, and these as a rule remained in union
with the village whence they came. Among both Malays and Battaks in Sumatra,
and also in North Celebes, special names are found for these daughter-settlements.
Perhaps certain political partnerships are connected with this ; thus the rulers of
Ternate and Tidor treat each other as near of kin.
Slavery, which has not much hold among the simpler races, is strongly
developed among the " town Malays " of Palembang, Acheen, and the like. It
affects prisoners of war, malefactors who cannot pay their fines, and other debtors,
among them not a few who have gambled away their liberty ; whole tribes have
become enslaved through debt. Illegitimate children, whether the parents are
free or slaves, come into this class. As a rule slaves are treated as members of
the household, can buy their freedom, and in practice are not inferior to poor
THE MALAY FAMILY, COMMUNITY, STATE 447
relations who have been taken into the house for the worth of their service.
Rejang law recognises temporary slavery as a penalty. Slave-capture and
slave-trading is a chief line of business among all Malays who trade in ships of
their own. Bali, where the men were valued as soldiers and the girls as mes-
sengers, to the extent that in Batavia there is still a "Balinese village," lost a great
part of its population in this way. In the states which have been conquered by
the true Malays, the distinction between gentlemen and plebeians is often so sharp
that one may speak of serfdom. The transition from freedom to slavery is found
in the Ilapitas, who work in the paddy fields of the Holontalos, an« wash gold for
the chief, without wages ; the Mongohules, who, as descendants of a particular race
of slaves, assist their lords only on festive occasions, and lastly the "Wakos, who
are slaves acquired by purchase, exchange, inheritance, or gift.
The tribes are quite as exclusive towards outsiders as they are self-contained.
Every tribe demands not only the sole use of the territory in which it lives, but
also requires respect for its usages, for its graves, for places which it has declared
fadi ox pamali, and which it protects by crafty traps. Other causes also contribute.
Among the Ilongotes individual tribes fight fiercely with each other, though for
the most part only within the families concerned in the matter ; but when there
is any question of a campaign against Christians or Negritos, friends and foes
combine. Head-hunting, kidnapping, and piracy of an incredibly impudent kind
cannot be eradicated in the Spanish and Dutch territories. On the other hand,
where the tribes have not been corrupted, hospitality towards white men is carried
so far that the traveller may take up his quarters tranquilly in any house of a
kampong that he pleases, without any danger of an unfriendly reception. The
story that the Dyaks have a tendency to poison strangers who enter their
territory has been stated, at any rate in South and Central Borneo, to have
no foundation.
The frequent state of war caused prescribed forms to grow up for declaring
war, making peace, and contracting alliances. War was never carried on in blind
rage, but in a chivalrous, almost sportsmanlike fashion. The Battaks, before
taking up arms, announce the war by a cartel, and negotiate for days together in
fiery speeches, while neighbouring chiefs try to effect an accommodation ; at the
end of everything, the first death is decisive. The cartel consists of a piece of
bamboo a span long, on which are written the grievances and the declaration of
war, a bundle of straw and a bamboo knife, to denote fire-raising and throat-cutting,
and a spear-head of carved bamboo ; the whole being tied up in a bundle and
hung up at night where the enemy will see it. Among the Ilongotes war is
signified by a bundle of arrows or the sprinkling of the road with blood. But in
spite of all this, war does not break out unless some decided act of hostility is
committed within eight days. Peace is often, unhappily, ratified by human
sacrifices : and mingling of blood exalts friendship to the rank of blood
brotherhood. Small quarrels of daily life are appeased by the sirih-\>oyi,
which is not made costly and ornamental for nothing, and is a means of
reconciliation like the tobacco-pouch or rum bottle elsewhere.
Ever since the Malays have been known, the habit of cutting off heads with a
view to the acquisition of trophies, head-snapping as the Dutch call it, has been
one of their most successful institutions. Martin de Rada, provincial of the
Augustinians, reports its existence in Luzon as early as the year 1577, and up
448
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
till the present time this custom of prizing the skulls of enemies has held its
ground among savage Dyak and Tagal tribes in spite of vigorous opposition on
the part of the colonial authorities. Head-hunting flourishes also abundantly in
the east — for example, in Ceram. In order to understand the persistency of this
custom we have to realise that it has a religious basis in the worship of skulls
universal among the Malays, owing to which the skulls of enemies must
have appeared the most desirable sacrifice which could be offered to ancestral
spirits. Where Christianity or Islam have gained a footing, skull worship and
• -. head - hunting with it
have rapidly decreased
within a generation. In
North Borneo the skulls
lie among old lumber.
Among the Igorrotes, ac-
cording to Hans Meyer,
the only thing that sur-
vives is the dance ac-
companied by the singing
of a derisive song round
the bare pole on which
the skull was formerly
stuck. Among the Ilon-
gotes before the marriage
ceremony is completed,
the bridegroom has to
bring the bride a number
of human heads, those
of Christians being pre-
ferred. But the Dyaks
are said to fancy Dyak
heads only. Heads are
also in demand to place
under the posts at the
foundation of a house as
a gift to a dead man, or to ornament the hall of a chiefs house ; none but a suc-
cessful head-hunter is entitled to be tattooed. Skulls are also used for drinking
cups, while the teeth and hair serve for the adornment of the body and weapons.
When the Dutch have taken skulls away from head-hunters, these have declined
to give up the scalp and the lower jaw. By the unwritten common law of these
tribes cutting off heads is the only effective form of settling tribal enmities. Head-
hunting, though it originally proceeded from religious and political motives, soon
extended the circle of its victims, and the desire of possessing skulls became a
passion. Every neighbouring village almost was looked upon as hostile, and
heads were cut off even when a sleeping man had to be killed to do it. A
further psychological motive for the practice lay in the decay of blood feuds
owing to idleness ; the Dyak is lazy and will stroll patiently about in the
neighbourhood of the paddy fields until he gets a good opportunity of falling
upon one or two defenceless women and children. " Only once has it occurred,"
Basket of a Dyak head-hunter, with half a skull hanging on it.
(Munich Museum.)
THE MALAY FAMILY, COMMUNITY, AND STATE
449
says Michaelsen, " that a Dyak of Serajen, whose daughter had been murdered
by a head-hunter of Katingan, followed the murderer and cut his head off
actually at the festival which was being held in his honour. The deed caused
such terror that the man who had dared to do such a thing in vengeance for his
child was allowed to depart unhindered with the decapitated head."
Head -hunting is carried on systematically; the Dyaks prepare for it by
religious consecration. They build themselves a hut with a roof on four posts,
and the floor raised a yard high ; the entrance is barred with coils of rattan which
are hung with red flowers, young palm leaves, and a quantity
of little wooden images of swords, shields, spears, flying
hornbills, and the like. Inside the hut are spears, blow-
guns, quivers with freshly-poisoned arrows, shields, swords,
and cuirasses, enough to equip a band of head-hunters. In
this hut the company stays for a period of four to six days
according to the omens. Before they leave it they hide in
the ground a number of rudely -carved figures equal in
number to their numbers in order to appease the evil
spirits. Any man who does not belong to the band is for-
bidden, on pain of a heavy fine, or even death, to approach ^'"^" head-basket used by
, 7 7 ■ 1 "-ni • • ) • Guinans of Luzon — one-
tne balei hut. Ihe victims property is untouched, and third real size. (Dr.
the Alfurs of Ceram before they place themselves in am- Meyer's Collection. )
bush even warn their victim by damaging his fruit-trees and even breaking off
twigs.
The connection of this practice with cannibalism, which crops up here and
there quite independently of the stage of civilization, is indicated by the various
uses to which the skull and other parts of the human body are put. One practice
replaces the other — thus the Battaks are cannibals and the Dyaks head-hunters ;
in Timorlaut alliances are clinched by eating a slave. In North Borneo, the
people of Sulu, who are alleged not to be head-hunters, bind their victim and pierce
him through the breast with spears, and every one belonging to the village gives
a slash to the quivering body. After that they bury the corpse without taking the
skull ; " the chiefs of Sulu do not wish that." Their neighbours catch the victim's
blood in little bamboo pails in order to sprinkle their fields with it. According to
Bock the Bahu-Trings eat the bodies of their victims, while the skulls are dric
and become the property of the chief. A. B. Meyer has no doubt that the custoir.,
which Mas reports as existing among the Ifugaos of the Philippines and in Borneo
of swallowing the brain, prevails to the present day in North Luzon. The Alfurs
of Ceram lay the skull of a freshly-killed man in the foundation of their commoi^
house. Even though among the Battaks in recent times cannibalism is no dail)'
occurrence performed at the discretion of individuals, but is only employed in the
case of prisoners of war or criminals of a bad kind, yet there are evidences that
the prevalence of this bad habit was formerly more universal. Human flesh is
said to have been sold in the Battak country in open market, and certain rajahs
are alleged to have eaten it daily as a matter of liking, and people have also eaten
their relations when ill. A simple question of money has played no small part
in the difficulty of eradicating cannibal habits. When a tiwa feast is held in
honour of a dead person, it is clearly cheaper to slaughter six slaves at loo
guilders than six buffaloes at 150.
2 G
45°
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
The Malays are not devoid of fighting spirit, though large populations, like
the Javanese, have been enervated by long subjection. It is impossible to deny
courage to the thousands of Bugises who are devoted to piracy, or the bold slave-
raiders of the New Guinea coasts. The Dyak is a born warrior ; in his weapons
the requirements of modern perfection are replaced by thorough adaptation to
the country, and the dexterity with which they are used. The training of boys
proceeds mostly in the direction of arousing military valour ; war-dances, religious
ceremonies at marching out, talismans, are aids to courage. In Timorlaut a
butterfly is swallowed. Women and children often take part in war. The Battaks
fetch champions from a distance, as
from Acheen ; and their confidence
is proportioned to the distance whence
they come.
To the tribe and its communal
groups falls also the duty of punishing
criminals ; and especially in the event
of the criminal's insolvency to arrange
for the payment of his fine. But
they have also the right, as an alter-
native, to expel hinl ; which puts him
in the position of an outlaw, since
personal protection can only be
guaranteed by membership of a tribe.
Further, the chief cannot enact a new
law without the consent of the tribe.
Malay jurisprudence, even though the
conception of law and the judicial
position are unknown, rests on usage;
adat, handed down by tradition. It
has passed the stage of private retalia-
tion, and has advanced to the inflic-
tion of prescribed penalties. The
transition appears in the fact that in
a case of adultery the injured husband
is free to kill his wife and her para-
mour if he catches them in the act,
or until the trespass has been brought to the notice of the chief; in Nias he can
even demand assistance for the purpose. But if he misses the moment, the offence
must be dealt with by law. The same applies to theft and homicide. In Johore,
even a blow in the face can be punished with death ; but it must be within three
days. Cases of lynching have occurred even after the police had taken charge
of the offender. When the law comes into operation, almost every trespass can
be atoned for by a money-fine, and even this becomes superfluous since the injured
party is satisfied if he can be indemnified by means of private agreement. If
any one is suspected of theft, the friends of the person injured try, in the first
instance, to ascertain whether the thief has the means to offer an indemnity.
Indemnity or recompense is the right word ; the notion of " penalty " generally
goes no further than private or blood-revenge. In the prosecution of a criminal
Chief and dignitary of Nias. (From a photograph.)
THE MALAY FAMILY, COMMUNITY, AND STATE 45 1
and the levying of the fine the community of tribal action is among many tribes
very striking. In Macassar the atonement for a male slave is 20 reals, for a
female 30, for a free man 30, for a free woman 40, for a man of noble family 80.
Among the Rejangs of Sumatra, according to Marsden, it is 500 dollars in the
higher class of chiefs, 250 in the lower, whether for man or woman, 150 for a free
man's wife, and 80 for himself. Among the Pasemahs the atonement for a
child of one of the higher classes is equal to that for a man of the next lower.
Wounds above the hips cost more than those in the lower parts ; and those inflicted
with a kriss more than those with a stick. That the system of money compen-
sation leads to abuses will be obvious ; in the case of adultery it is absolutely made
a source of profit. In South Borneo, ladies who overstep the limits of conjugal
fidelity are not unfrequently in most demand, because of the rights which their
husbands acquire to heavy fines. Affronts are also very frequent, since among the
traits of the Malay character is an almost morbid feeling of the honour which
is due to a man. A contemptuous look, a slight blow, the act of stepping over
a person who is lying on the ground, often enough lead to homicide.
Theft and adultery are the usual offences, while murder, serious wounding,
incendiarism, and other grave misdeeds have, in some of the smaller territories
like Buru and Engano, not occurred within the memory of man, which accounts
for the high standard of penalties, particularly of theft ; it is usual to burn
highway robbers.
Appeals to the judgment of God are still frequent ; especially trial by fire.
Common forms of ordeal are ducking, pulling a ring out of boiling oil, or licking
red-hot iron. In cases of obstinate denial, or where the ordeal is indecisive,
wager of battle decides in Timorlaut. The Tagals have borrowed from Christians
the trial by candle, in which a consecrated candle, being lighted, bends towards
the guilty person. Among the Igorrotes the two parties to a suit have the backs
of their heads scratched with sharp splinters of bamboo, and the one who loses
most blood loses his case. A form of divine judgment which here also occurs is
arrived at by testing the size of the gall of a hen which has been roasted to death.
Superstition encroaches upon penal law in so far that on great emergencies persons
guilty of adultery or incest are put to death to propitiate the gods. Among the
Lubus, when a man has to take an oath, the witch-doctor administers it in the
formula, " May I be torn to pieces by tigers, carried away by water, swallowed by
crocodiles, and killed by snakes if I am not speaking the truth." Among the
Alfurs of Halmahera the oath is confirmed by drinking water in which weapons
have been dipped ; among those of Coram, the persons swearing dip their weapons
into a little cask of arrack in which are placed a small wooden crocodile and an ill-
favoured human figure ; sentence is pronounced frequently beside sacred trees or
stones. In Ceram, a league resembling the secret societies of the Oceanians grew
in process of time into a judicial league, the chief aim of which was the settling
of disputes without the interference of government. Every participator has a
cross tattooed on his breast ; persons are admitted at fifteen or sixteen years of
age, and for fourteen days before admission instruction is given by a teacher in
a remote hut. The league has a tripartite council, which, on occasion, finds a
sanction for its sentences in decapitation.
The pamali,pali,fadi,fosso, or sassie of the Malay races is not simply equivalent
to the taboo of the Polynesians, it has more the sense of the Micronesian mugul.
452 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
that which is well-mannered or lawful. Most nearly connected with it is the
uJium of the Dyaks, it is only when it is employed for religious or political purposes
that it acquires the stricter character of taboo. Places are tabooed commonly by
hanging up a bunch of palm leaves ; they have either been so from ancient times
or they are declared pamali by old men on the ground of their experience. The
Alfurs of Halmahera are even forbidden to look upon the sea ; the prohibition
of certain foods, such as apply to venison, pork, and various kinds of fish,
require pamali to enforce them. Any contact with the wife of another is
declared pamali in Ternate ; whole villages become pamali owing to a death,
and inflict punishment for any infringement of it. The obviously arbitrary
character of the tabooings permits of a thing being set down as unpermitted
by reason of a dream.
The fadi of the Malagasies, again, is not the mere taboo of the Polynesians
overshadowing relations of every kind ; it means much the same as forbidden,
unlucky, not to be touched, sacred. Hens Are- fadi in the district of Behare on
the south coast of Madagascar ; and consequently no hen may come thither, and
the shooting of birds is forbidden. Elsewhere the dog or some other beast
occupies this position, perhaps with some reference to the kobong or totem. The
monthly fadi days exercise great influence ; any child who is born on unlucky days
of this kind is buried alive, as Grandidier quite recently reported in regard to the
Antanosses. Tender parents, by means of money and good words, obtain permis-
sion for the sacrifice of a finger-joint to be accepted as atonement for arrival on
an unlucky day. A great part of the influence of the chiefs rests upon the fact
of their being credited with a knowledge of lucky and unlucky days in which
astrological considerations appear to be involved. In Imerina, every idol had
formerly \i\?. fadi day upon which those who were specially dedicated to him did
no work, and thus, even at the present time, every Hova of high rank abstains
from particular foods on his fadi day and passes it in complete seclusion.
Numerical superstitions are expressed in many curious ways. The number
one arouses apprehension, and, accordingly, to every burden at least two bearers
are required ; on the other hand twelve is a good number — the king has twelve
wives, there are twelve sacred places in I marina, and twelve royal ancestors ;
twelve capital crimes, and twelve executions for them. We find the same capricious
tricks of thought as in fetish superstitions.
§ 20. THE MALAGASIES
Madagascar— Its people— Negroid and Malay elements — Reported dwarfs— Influence of India, Europe,
Arabia — The family : children and naming — Marriage — Blood-brotherhood — The polity^Classes— Slaves
— Constitutions — The Hova kingdom — Historical sketch — The king — All properly vested in the crown-
The sovereign as high priest— Lavifs— Ordeals— MiUtary affairs.
Madagascar! is one of the largest inhabited islands. With an area of 250,000
square miles, in a genial climate, endowed with a good soil, and well watered, it
offers not only space, but all the necessary conditions for the development of a
^ The name Madagascar is given to the island only by the Hovas, who called themselves Malagasy, in
contra-distinction to the other tribes. The inhabitants of the adjacent islands use the term Tari-Be, or Great
Land. The Swahili call it Bakini. The name in the form Madagascar occurs in Marco Polo.
THE MALAGASIES 453
special race. It is 250 miles from the east coast of Africa, 450 from Bourbon,
1350 from Arabia, and about the same distance from India. The southward set of
the currents isolates it still further on the south and west ; but the north and east
coasts are washed by the tranquil waters of the Indian Ocean, with its regularly
recurring monsoons ; interrupted, however, too often by devastating cyclones. The
best harbours are on the north-west coast.
Madagascar is mainly a country of highlands ; most of the interior consists
of lofty plateaux and mountains, rising in the summit of Tsiafazavona to 8635
feet. The cool bracing climate of the Hova highlands has doubtless contributed
to make the people what they are. There is a narrow belt of forest on the
level coasts, then swamps and morasses, followed by gently-rising swelling plains,
which gradually ascend in steps to the plateau of Imerina, crowned with peaks.
This forest and meadow region is the most promising district in Madagascar ; on
the highest plateaux heath prevails. The small extent of forest may be explained
by the unequal distribution of rainfall over the year ; but a good deal of wood
has been burnt, a common practice of the Malagasies with a view to obtaining
arable land. Lying as the country does within the zone of trade-winds," the
contrast between the wet and the longer dry season is heightened. No less in
the highlands than in the low coast country droughts alternate with inundations,
and the lie of the ground causes great inequalities in the rate at which the water
runs off. The lagoons which lie in a long chain, especially on the east coast,
form to some extent a substitute for rivers. The native flora supplies no part of
the food of the people ; but the prairies of the coast and the grass-covered surface
of the interior support the herds of cattle which play an important part in every
department of Malagasy life. The best arable land is found where woods have
been burnt. The coast is fringed with the coco-palm, perhaps indigenous. The
sago-palm also grows, but the natives make no use of it. The most useful palm
is the Rafia {Sagus raphid), of which the midrib of the leaves, some 20 feet long,
and the delicate pinnate leaves, afford an admirable fibre. The plaiting of grass-
mats, hats, and baskets is a great occupation of the Malagasy women. In some
parts of the coast and in the Betsileo country the poor people use grass mats as
clothing, houses are thatched with grass, and rafts, after the fashion of bamboo-
rafts, are built with the light three-edged stems of a papyrus-like sedge. In the
highlands, where wood is scarce, grass is almost the only fuel. There are many
dye-plants, and indigo is cultivated.
In few parts of the earth does man come so little into contact with the native
fauna as here. It would seem as if imported plants and animals had had a far
wider-reaching influence than those indigenous to the country ; no instance has
been met with of real domestication of a native animal or cultivation of a native
plant unless the coco-palm be one.
Though compelled by its situation to link its fortunes with Africa, Madagascar
is, so far as the national life is concerned, wholly detached from that continent.
It lay, doubtless, from an early period, widely open to Asiatic influences;
we can even at this present day trace to Southern Asia the separate origm of
a portion of the population. The basis was, however, no doubt African, and the
stage of civilization which this island, destined to be so important, has attamed,
is rather African than Asiatic in its character. The course of its history has
been aimlessly split up, with no influence on the sum of human development ;
454
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
the part taken by Madagascar in the history of the people surrounding the Indian
Ocean has been as imperceptible as that of East Africa.
We can perceive in the Malagasy population a great variety of physical
characteristics. Their colour is of all shades, from the light bronzed yellow of the
southern European to a deep brownish black ; their hair of all kinds, from the
African wool to the stiff straight-haired shock of the Malay ; their physiognomy
of every type between Negroid and Mongoloid. Sometimes we find all these
peculiarities occurring in different degrees in the same stock ; sometimes obviously
distributed among different stocks. The broad division into the two main com-
ponent groups, Malayan
and African respectively,
of Hovas and Sakalavas, is
as unquestionable as it is
difficult to trace in indi-
viduals. No less obscure is
the history of their amalga-
mation. In spite of transi-
tional forms, showing mix-
ture elsewhere, quite enough
of the pure breed has con-
tinued to exist on either
side.
The Malay element has
apparently been preserved
in its purest form among
the most powerful people of
Madagascar, the Hovas."^
They are not tall, but fairly
well built, active and lively,
tough rather than strong.
Their colour is a yellowish
olive, many being fairer than
the average of southern
Europeans ; the lower part of the face slightly retreating ; hair black, stiff or
curly ; eyes chestnut brown. The Malayan features, however, are to be found not
only among the Hovas ; indeed, owing to their wars and their wide extension all
over the island they no longer display the type so clearly as some of the tribes
which have remained settled near the coast. Sibree found among the Betsimi-
sarakas persons lighter than the Hovas. Nor must the women be forgotten.
Many light-complexioned Hova women are, in contrast to the men, of remarkable
beauty. Owing also to their intellectual superiority, they have for a long time
taken a leading place in the history of the island. Since the arrival of Euro-
peans, mulattoes, whether from the island itself or Bourbon and Mauritius, have
also played their part, more especially in connection with the European acquisition
of property, and in the two Sakalava kingdoms to the west. More recent
observers are inclined to attribute the Hova supremacy to a strong infusion of
white blood.
' The French call the Hovas "Malgaches," and all the other inhabitants of the island " Sakalaves."
Malagasy of Negroid type. (From a photograph in Pruner Bey's
Collection. )
THE MALAGASIES
455
In former times a race of dwarfs was reported to exist on the island. Some
consider these fabulous ; others hold that they have become extinct. Ellis has
endeavoured to connect with the Wazimba the stories told by De Commerson
(1 77 1) and others about the Quimos, a people said to be smaller than the
Hovas, hght-coloured, and active. Tradition records them to have been the
builders of those great dolmen-like stone sepulchres which are numerous in the
interior.
We cannot state with any certainty all the foreign elements in the popula-
tion ; but there can be no doubt of
their importance, especially in the econ-
omic life. First appear the energetic,
reckless Arabs and Swahilis ; then the
more peaceful but at the same time
more astute Indians. Swahili settle-
ments may be found on almost every
favourable point of the coast ; nearly
all the trade is in the hands of Indians.
There are some few traces of even
more distant visitors. Edrisi speaks of
trade with China as existing in his
day ; and this has been newly revived
by pig-tailed immigrants.
We know nothing as to the number
of the Arabs in the island, but it is
certainly considerable. Tradition re-
fers whole tribes to an Arab origin,
and we find early evidence of a know-
ledge of Madagascar in Arabian writers.
The Arabic alphabet is used in the
south of Madagascar, and Arabic books
are found on the east coast ; while in
the north, under English influence, the
Hovas have introduced English letters.
Christianity has in some parts degraded Arabic to the position of a magic
language, and amulets are worn with Arabic inscriptions, now quite unintelligible.
But how came Islam, which has carried out its propaganda with so much
success in East Africa, to remain confined to the coast in Madagascar ? The
Hovas, who are the born foes of the coast population, embraced Christianity very
rapidly, seeing in it above all the antagonist of Islam. Formerly perhaps it was
otherwise, for Cameron has collected Hova customs having a strong affinity with
the Jewish ; and these may perhaps even more probably be an inheritance from
the Arabs.
As to the arrangement of the various elements or layers in point of date, we
know that in a history of Madagascar published in 1874 at Antananarivo a list
was given of thirty-six Hova chiefs and kings. This would correspond at most to
a period of eight hundred years. Philologists, however, put the Malay immigration,
on account of the ancient forms preserved in the Malagasy dialects, before the date
of its extension over Polynesia. Besides Arabic and Swahili, only Malay dialects
Malagasy of Negroid type. (Same source. \
456
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
are spoken throughout the island ; and these are so much alike that all Malagasies
can, even if with some difficulty, understand each other.
No one has hitherto seriously doubted the essentially Malay nature of the
Malagasy dialects, above all, of the Hova. But attempts have been made to
diminish its importance, by regarding the Malay admixture as casual fragments,
a kind of flotsam, as it were. At all events, the Malagasy has drawn not only
on the Malay language ; its affinities were at least as strong with the Polynesian.
Cousin regards it as an older independent offshoot from the same family of
languages as thalt of which Malay and Polynesian are younger members. The
successive appearance of African and South Asiatic elements in the population
is an assured fact, resting more on physical than on linguistic evidence. If we
demand ethnographic proofs we have the existence of an essentially East African
breed of cattle. On the other hand, agriculture, with its cultivation of rice, tare,
and the sugar-cane, inclines more to Southern Asia. The latter is more strongly
Sakalava musical instrument — one-third real size. (Berlin Museum. )
represented in the east, among the Hovas ; the former in the west among the
Sakalavas. The universal employment of rafia fabrics for clothing hardly explains
the very small use made of skins, of which the cattle-breeding tribes of Africa are
so fond ; bark is used here as freely as in Central Africa and Melanesia. Among
weapons we do not find the Central African missile knife, nor the African bow.
For smelting iron the Malagasy use the spring-bellows found among the Malays.
Fadi suggests reminiscences of the Malayan and Polynesian taboo, but is not
pushed to such extremes. Political life was, until the rise (with European help)
of the Hovas, the great power in Madagascar, modelled on African lines ; but
the religious ideas are more akin to those of Southern Asia. Thus the general
impression produced by the ethnological facts tallies with that derived from
language ; we have a Malay-African mixture in which the Malay and Polynesian
element predominates.
The first inhabitants were Africans. Then came Malays and other peoples
from the eastern and northern shores of the Indian Ocean, and gradually mingled
with the earlier comers. The Hovas and their kindred are shown by their
relative purity of race to have come later. It is no less certain that more than
one Malay immigration took place than that it was not a casual arrival. There
must have been a long-continued influx, and the Malays must have had an
intimate intercourse, perhaps connected with the old Malay civilization in further
India and the Archipelago, with the countries to the west of the Indian Ocean.
THE MALAGASIES
457
A,'''
Malay traces in Africa show that these Orientals were not stopped by the
Mozambique Channel.
The modern conditions of seafaring in East Africa are, in the view of some
ethnographers, opposed to the idea of a voluntary migration over sea. But
seamanship and nautical capacity are no permanent possession, as we may learn
from many instances in Polynesia and the Asiatic home of the Malays. There
is no need to assume, as some have done, that at the date of this immigration
there were many more volcanic islets in the Mozambique Channel, to serve as
stepping-stones. Energetic Africans may easily have found their way across ;
nor indeed have they ever lacked courage in those parts. How the cows were
got over is still a puzzle ; here is involved a point in the art of sea-travel
which we find indeed was known to the Arabs, but hardly among the races
now more immediately under consideration.
The population of Madagascar is estimated
at three to four millions ; it is certainly fifteen
or twenty times less than by European standards
it should be. The Hovas are reckoned at
750,000 to 1,200,000. Imerina, on the interior
table-land, and some parts of the provinces of
Betsileo and Bara are the most densely inhabited.
In forming a judgment of the character of the
people, we must not overlook race -differences.
The Hova, like all Malays, is undoubtedly cal-
culating rather than straightforward, pliant rather
than strong. Both his faults and his virtues
have their origin in a kind of softness, which
leads him to welcome European influences, and
even Christianity, warmly, but does not allow
him to keep a firm hold upon the benefits which
they offer. When decision is required he avoids
giving a definite answer, prevaricates, and always keeps a door of retreat open.
His greed and insatiable cupidity are yet not adequate to the foundation of
a vigorous economic life. Immoderate use of spirituous drinks has become
, historical in Madagascar ; a king of good dispositions lost his throne by reason of
it Political revenge, assassination, and poisoning are common. The Hova has
a strong sense, scarcely justified by his general position, of his own superiority
to the other races of the island, who are for the moment in subjection to him.
Their love of home, which nothing wiir break, is of political importance; they
always dislike going abroad, and are glad to return.
The Malagasies are passionately fond of music, and the kmg and nobles
always keep their bards close at hand. The instruments are eminently Malayan
in character. The Antsiva or shell-trumpet of the Malays and Polynesians is
regarded as very important. A great sea-shell, with a hoarse note, which only
kings may legally use, serves to call the soldiers to arms. No religious ceremony
takes place without dances, songs, or firing of guns. Great political revolutions,
which ferment silently among the people, are often first announced by a mama
for dancing, said to be demonic possession, which finds its victims in all classes.
Dancing and singing are also used as cures for illness.
Hova guitar and powder-horn.
Museum. )
(Dresden
458
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
There are indications showing that before the arrival of Europeans the year
consisted of twelve months, each of twenty-eight days. Another twenty-eight
days were so distributed among the months as to make every new year begin
with a new moon. The Hova names for the months are Arabic ; but the coast-
tribes form names from words of their own. Navigation was so rare that we
hear little of observations of the stars either for orientation or measurement
of time. The planting of rice and other important affairs were regulated by
the setting of the sun at a fixed point of the horizon.
The original Malagasy costume, worn
by Hovas and Sakalavas alike, consisted
of a loin-cloth, reaching in the case of men
to the knees, in women to the feet. This
has unfortunately been driven out by Euro-
pean dress, which the Hovas were actually
the earliest to adopt. The woolly-haired
tribes for the most part dress their hair
in puffs ; the Hovas wear it short or parted
in the middle, and on their heads broad-
brimmed straw hats. The most favourite
ornaments are arm or finger-rings, of brass
or silver — the arm-rings more especially on
the west coast, where Arab fashions prevail.
Nose-rings in the Indian style are also
found. Among the Sakalavas,, though the
men are not tattooed, the women mark
themselves with a thorn or a needle on
their upper arms, where the outlines of
crosses, stars, or serpentine figures may
often be seen. The Hovas are not tattooed,
but among the Betsileos the women tattoo
neck and bosom. Among the Sakalavas of
the west coast the barbaric Indian ear-lobe
plugs may be seen. Some of the forest
tribes of the interior have a way of staining
their teeth black with a paste called by
Sibree laingo ; they are said to stain alter-
nate teeth, leaving the others white.
The dominant position of the Hovas having been won easily by the use of
European weapons, other tribes have had to follow suit, and fire-arms are almost
universal. Even among the more remote tribes the warriors carry a gun with
their two javelins. Yet even in Antananarivo one may often see spears, battle-
axes, short daggers, and wooden shields covered with buffalo hide ; though only
the wilder tribes are said still to possess any dexterity in handling the spear.
Besides the bow the Malayan blow-gun, 6 to lo feet long, is also found; the
arrows used with it are splinters of bamboo or reed, about 20 inches in length,
padded at the hinder end with the silky fibres from the seed of an asclepiad plant,
or with feathers, in order, by preventing windage, to increase the initial speed and
steady the missile in its flight.
Malagasy necklace of carved horn.
Society's Museum. )
(Missionary
THE MALAGASIES
459
All Malagasy houses are built on a very similar ground-plan ; an evidence
for the similarity of the races from an ethnographical point of view. Clay,
which in this granitic island occurs abundantly, is built up in layers about 20 inches
high of rather less thickness. In this way are formed walls, which, to the surprise
of Europeans, are capable of defying the heaviest rain for many years. The roof
does not rest on the walls but on three posts. It is steep and high, and is thatched
with reeds or rushes. Only the wealthiest people in Antananarivo have roofs of
painted shingles or earthen tiles. At the gable the roof-spars cross ; their ends
are notched and often terminate with some little carved work, such as a pair of
ox-horns, or a small bird, in which we may probably see a reminiscence of the
House of a Hova chief. (From the Globus.)
tribal token. The height of the spars indicates the owner's rank. The house
has at least one door and one window ; the doors open as a rule to the westward,
and are placed about a foot and a half from the ground, so that you reach the
threshold by a couple of stone steps. The eastern or north-eastern side of the
house is sacred ; here stands the ancestral image or the cross. In building, the
north-east corner-post is erected with solemn ceremonies. This is the regular
Hova type, of which the construction of the capital offers magnificent examples.
In the royal buildings — enormous huts with sharp roofs — every floor is surrounded
with a verandah supported on mighty tree-stems. The town rises in terraces ; the
narrow roads are steep and bad, and the houses do not stand in rows, but are
placed anyhow. Some open spaces are used as market-places. In the
Sakalava villages the houses are small, irregularly scattered about under the
shade of large trees, and covered with foliage. They also are rectangular, and
usually raised from three to six feet on piles. All villages and many single
houses are enclosed with high walls of reeds or mud. Some have seen in this
a Mahommedan custom ; but it probably is a relic of the times when every little
46o
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
Hova tribe was at war with its neighbour, and on every hill there was a village
with three lines of entrenchments round it. When a strong government had put
an end to this reign of club-law, the people came down into the plains ; though
there are still plenty of fortified villages in the Hova country. At an earlier
period, generally referred to the latter half of the eighteenth century, masonry
was better executed among the Malagasies than it is at present, so that unlike
so many parts of Africa, the country possesses ruins and traditions.
No tribe lives entirely without agriculture. As with the Negroes of East
Africa, almost the only implement is a light hoe. The fields often lie far from
the village in the valley-openings or, on the level ground by the streams, and
Fenced farm-houses in Imerina, Madagascar. (After Ellis.)
their position often changes. The people have little thought for the future, and
sacrifice their woods recklessly so as to get fresh land and the manure of the
ashes ; there is no replanting. Thus nearly the entire Hova country is now bare
of wood and overgrown with grass ; only here and there some venerable giant
rises aloft as an evidence of bygone grandeur. Indian, Arabian, and European
influence have brought the cultivation of rice and sugar-cane to this altitude.
In the east and the interior rice is the staple food, while in the west the inhabit-
ants live more on maize, cassava, and various roots. Even in the last century
the exportation of rice was considerable. The irrigation of the rice fields is in
many cases artificial ; the treading down of the soil is performed by the cattle.
For reaping,' a sickle resembling a slightly curved serrated knife is used. The
ears are then thrashed out on a stone and winnowed. Sugar-cane is widely
cultivated in the Hova country. It is crushed between cylinders of hard wood,
and the juice allowed to flow into a trough. From this an intoxicating
drink known as toakka is distilled. The sugar, imperfectly crystallised, is sold
in the market of the country. Many fruit-trees have been imported, such as
peaches, oranges, lemons. The vine is grown in the highlands, and hemp and
THE MALAGASIES
461
Rice-mortar and paddle from Madagascar.
Collection. )
(Stockholm Ethnographical
tobacco are cultivated as luxuries. Tobacco is seldom smoked, and then only
in water-pipes of the African kind, made of gourds grown into the shape of
cow-horns, and clay — nor ever taken in snuff, but chewed with avidity in
the form of powder.
Cattle are currency.
A bride is paid for in
oxen, and no solemnity
is complete without the
sacrifice of an ox. The
Malagasy scarcely ever
eats meat except on
festive occasions ; and
to eat calves is entirely
repugnant to the feeling
of the country, which
forbids the offspring to
be taken from the
mother. Cattle and rice form the chief source of revenue ; Mauritius, Reunion,
even Zanzibar and places on the East African coast, supply themselves with these
chiefly from Madagascar. All money is invested in cattle, and the greatest
ambition of a poor man
is to acquire at least two
or three beasts. In the
highlands milk is a chief
article of food, and the
rich Hovas have dairy-
farms with five to eight
hundred head of cattle
on them. Some beasts
are also stall-fed, in stalls
h"^(ill^te'^')l''KtK^Sh. — --<?>i'^*^^ /^K '^^^^ underground. Al-
^W^^^BamWM^T^S^r^^'' JfflW"'^ though cattle are placed
^^ ^'^■™Mr,J'1^^^^ .i^^Mf^' under the protection of
^JuKBiw^^^^^^Siw'^ ' ^^^ public, and among
^ ^^rn iI'Ml'Ifflilllfilllw' " ^^^ independent tribes to
' 7; lift I Wm' n'*' 1 ' steal them is a capital
"' '' '' offence, cattle -lifting is
frequent. The Malagasy
ox resembles the East
African. Sheep and goats are found only in the interior ; pigs, which are now
universal, were first introduced by the English under Radama I. Fowls are not
found in every village ; geese, ducks, and turkeys exist only among the Hovas.
Dogs are either of the East African jackal -like breed or European mongrels..
Cats are held by all Malagasies to be animals of evil omen.
The full development of labour among the free population is checked by the
existence of slavery. Where there is occasion for operations on a large scale,
as in the rice districts in the north of the Sakalava country, slaves are kept.
Anything like industrial activity (with the exception of the preparation and working
Madagascar hubble-bubble, in the African style-
( Berlin Museum.)
-one-fifth real size.
462
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
of iron, in parts where the raw material is plentiful), is confined to the women.
The Hovas like to imitate European patterns, but have little faculty of original
invention. Among that part of the population with which foreigners come little
Drawing of a herd of cattle, on the bamboo drinking-cup represented on opposite page. (Berlin Museum.)
into contact the women's favourite occupation is the weaving rafia-'vUox^ into
lantbas. You may see the looms set up day after day under great sheds ; and
Woven pouch from Madagascar — one-half real size. (Berlin Museum. )
the completion of a single piece of this durable fabric often takes a month. The
larger vessels of clay, especially the water-pots, of which one or two stand in
fixed places in every hut, resemble those of East Africa in their form and method
of burning, while the pots with covers used for cooking rice are Malayan style.
The dishes and bottles of fine red clay remind one of Moorish pottery. The
THE MALAGASIES
463
platting of mats, baskets, and bags, sometimes roughly shaped like animals,
sometimes bottle-shaped, is the women's work. The pattern of the corn-baskets
and mats, square and slightly bent up at the corners, is very pretty. The rush-
baskets of Madagascar hold water, and keep it cool by evaporation.
Owing to the bad state of the roads and the msecurity of communications,
the internal trade is insignificant ; and
even although foreign trade has gradu-
ally become of the first importance to
the Hova kingdom, all matters con-
nected with business are in a wretched
state. High import duties, from which
the Hovas defray the greater part of
their state-expenditure, are a burden
on trade ; though they have their use,
since brandy is one of the articles
subject to them.
Christianity in Madagascar had to
make terms with polygamy, which was
fostered by the raids of the Hovas.
These have long ceased to be success-
ful, and polygamy has been officially
suppressed. The first wife is every-
where the mistress of the house, and
her children take precedence. The
huts of the separate Vadikely, or bye-
wives, lie grouped round the larger hut
of the husband, who lives in this with
his head-wife, or Vadi-be. She is seldom
the prettiest of the wives, but is sure to
be the richest and most equal in rank
to the husband. Betrothal and mar-
riage customs remind us of those in
force among the Malays. Traces of
wife-purchase appear in the custom of
not holding a marriage to be concluded
Hova drinking-cups of bamboo, used also for tobacco-
boxes— one-half real size. (Berlin Museum. )
until the bride's parents have received a present from the bridegroom. In former
times this used to be a rump of beef In general, the woman's position is not
unduly inferior to that of the man. Great liberty is allowed to unmarried women.
The heathen tribes like to see a young wife bring pre-nuptial children with her.
In the morality of the half-civilized Christian Hovas hypocrisy plays an important
part ; semi-cultivation has had a detrimental effect here in all directions, accom-
panied as it has been by a diminution in thrift and an excessive indulgence in
spirituous drinks.
Among the most notable indications of Malayan affinities are exogamy and
mother-right. Preference of the female line in inheritance, equivalence m the degree
of kindred of father and father's brother, mother and mother's sister, and the fact that
marriage between cousins \s fadi, or forbidden, to the fifth degree, are peculiarities
quite diverse from African usage. Even the prominent share taken by women in
464
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
politics is primarily due to the great importance attached to direct descent in
blood. The custom by which the first minister is the queen's consort, has fortified
their position until three successive female reigns have gone far to give the Hova
constitution the appearance of a gynecocracy. Regard for posterity, especially
male posterity, has not succeeded in eradicating the horrible practice of infanticide.
The greatest respect is shown to parents by their children, very much owing to
the honour paid to age as such. For instance, if two slaves of different ages have
Antananarivo, the Hova capital. (From a photograph. )
a load to carry, the younger will, if possible, take it all. Blood brotherhood,
contracted over a slaughtered ox, recalls an African custom.
Society among the Hovas falls under thrfee classes ; the nobles {Andrian), the
citizens {Hova), and the slaves {Andevo or Ampory). The nobility consists mostly
of descendants of former chiefs. It is the most distinguished class, but not the
richest ; you may even hear people say " poor as a lord." The government is free
to employ all subjects as it pleases ; service is claimed from rich and poor, young
and old. Services rendered to the government are accordingly, as might be
expected, gratuitous ; and thence follows important results on the power of the
government, as well as the fact that the ministers are the chief traders in the
country. In this co^^/^-system too, we may find a reason for the backward condi-
tion of the people, seeing that it is just those of most ability who lose most of the
THE MALAGASIES
46s
pleasure of enjoying the fruits of their own work. By the introduction of wage-
paid labour the Europeans have acted beneficially on the social and economic
condition of the Hovas. An official nobility, ranking between the citizens and
the nobles by birth, has since the da,ys of Radama I. been created by the bestowal
of honours upon servants of the state. The freemen are divided into numerous
clans, which, as a rule, do not intermarry. They fall also into the two classes of
persons liable to military service, and simple citizens.
Of slaves three kinds are distinguished ; Tsatsa-Hova, Andevo, and Mozambik.
The first are of the same blood as the Hovas, but have been reduced to slavery
Rainitnalavona and Rainilaiarivona, two Prime Ministers of Radama II. (After Ellis. )
as a punishment for crimes committed by themselves, their fathers, or their
brothers. The Andevo, who form the most numerous class, are recruited chiefly
from prisoners of war ; they are slaves in the strictest sense. As a rule they are
rather darker than the Hovas ; but in other respects their appearance varies very
much, as might be expected from their various origin. The third class are
Africans, imported by Arabs mostly from the Mozambique coast. Since 1877
the slaves have been nominally free in all parts of the island over which the Hova
power extends. The slaves hold a somewhat lower position than other members
of the family ; but may, by the goodwill of their masters, lead an existence which
many a free man would envy. Thus the worst side of slavery is the bad influence
which it exercises over labour in general ; people have got used to letting the
smallest jobs be done by slaves.
The Constitutions of Madagascar were originally of a very elementary nature.
2 H
466 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
The powerlessness of so-called " kings " often presented a comical contrast to the
pretensions which interested Europeans tried to force upon them. But though
the Hovas have raised themselves above this low political level, we must not over-
estimate their achievements as founders of an empire. Large as their empire is,
it rests upon a force of widely-scattered garrisons and civil officials, so that its
very size is unfavourable to cohesion. The whole north and west, save for a few
trading-centres on the coast, is still independent ; the south and south-east not
much less so. In order to understand the effects from an ethnographic point of
view of the extension of the Hova conquest, we must consider how long the
struggle lasted, and with what energy and cruelty it was conducted. The only
thing aimed at was to injure their opponents, and for this all means were thought
allowable. If we further remember their custom of exporting as slaves all the
able-bodied members of the defeated side, and, as already mentioned, the wide
distribution of garrisons and officials, what else could we expect as the result of
their " forward '' policy than a general patchwork of the population ? But in this
fermenting mass the Hova is the leaven ; though outside of the narrow limits of
his original territory, even he regards himself as a foreigner.
Except the Hovas and the Betsileos, who must be treated as practically
identical, and who form the nucleus of the Hova kingdom in the interior, the
races of the west coast are comprised under the name of the most powerful among
them as the Betsimisaraka. These with the Betanimenas inland, and the Tanalas,
Tankays, and Sihanakas, who inhabit the forest-belt between the coast and the
interior, are like the Hovas ; while, to north and south, the Taimoro, Taifasy,
Taisaka, Tanosy, and Tandroy tribes have a darker skin and less stiff hair. Even
among the Betsimisarakas we find persons with dark skin and curly hair. At one
time the Sakalavas, reaching north and south on the west side, were limited only
on the south by the kingdom of Menabe, and on the north by Imboina, founded
some two hundred years ago by Sakalava chiefs. Thence they held the Hovas
in subjection ; now it is they who are (for the most part nominally) subject to
the Hovas.
The Hova monarchy is by no means unlimited ; least of all is the Hova
sovereign absolute. He is surrounded by a high nobility, to which belong the
members of the royal house and the descendants of old families ; and from which
are chosen the prince's companions and ministers. This body often acts as
representative of the people and organ of the popular will. Possibly in this
respect intercourse with Europeans has acted imperceptibly as an incitement,
which among this easily -swayed people would be none the less effective because
its origin was unobserved and its effects hard to calculate. If a king rules with
a strong hand, and knows how to ingratiate himself with the people, the nobility
and the pdpular assembly become of small consequence ; but their strength grows
in proportion as the sovereign is weak or unpopular. But he has the means of
making his authority thoroughly effective, for the king is not only the source of
laws, punishments, and honours ; he is also the, universal owner. All belongs to
him — person, property, time, labour, talent, invention. The administration is carried
on even at the present day essentially, from the point of view of the king's private
interests ; hence- arise the most senseless extortions and imposts. All minerals,
all produce of wood or field which is not got with pick and spade, are crown
property, even to the timber. The king can forbid his subjects to leave the island
THE RELIGION OF THE MALAYS 467
under pain of death or penal servitude for life. Offences against the state are
punished by the conversion of the right to the man's labour into a right to his
person ; that is, the offender becomes the king's slave ; and this state-slavery still
actually exists.
Christianity has not left much remaining of the sovereign's status as high
priest ; ^ indeed the priests appear to rank far below the higher court officials.
But remains of the old belief exist among the masses, who regard the king as a
great magician. The people have, as formerly with idols and their bearers, to
keep away from everything that has been in contact with the king and his house.
When the king is in mourning every Hova shaves his head. The method of
taking an oath is akin to an ordeal ; the person swearing must sip a magic-drink,
which, when the oath of allegiance is taken, must have stood upon a hump of
lead, a box of earth, and a gun-wad. The terrible poison-ordeal, which as tangena
among the Hovas and kizumba among the Sakalavas has played so destructive a
part, is not yet extinct. The pomp of the court is in many respects only an
imitation of European fashions, as may be seen in Ellis's picture of the coronation
of Radama II.
The laws of the Hovas are promulgated afresh by every king on his accession.
They number at present about sixty. New ordinances are announced in the
public market-place. For grave crimes various forms of capital punishment, and
slavery, are prescribed ; the wives, children, slaves, and flocks of the criminal are
confiscated and sold, if not redeemed by his relatives.
The Hovas have become great by the sword, and hold their power thereby.
The present dynasty has something military about it, translated into a Malagasy
form. All persons able to bear arms are liable to serve, and the garrisons are
formed of a portion selected at pleasure. These soldiers, like all other servants
of the state, receive no pay, so that war is a main object with them ; and of all
things they long for a good booty in cattle and young slaves.
§ 21. THE RELIGION OF THE MALAYS
Natural religion or ancestor worship ?— Predominance of the latter— So-called fetish images— Animistic belief
of the Negritos and proofs of its high antiquity— Complicated doctrine of the soul— Cult of skulls and
bones— Veneration of old pots— Tree worship— Veneration of animals— Tiger superstitions— Plurality of
spirits good and bad— Visible and invisible spirits— Amulets and relics— The Gangkan religion of the
Alfurs— Malay theology— Deification of men— Indistinct idea of the supreme being— -5a/a?-a^«/-«—Sivaitic
and Buddhist substratum— jTo/i'^-The war god— The spirit of the sea— Sun and moon— Spirit of the
earthquake— Mythologic legends— Notions of the next world— The priesthood, magicians, priestesses-
Religion and imposture — The places of worship.
Religious veneration of ancestors and a lively faith in higher spirits, as well as
a countless number of a lower class, added to magic of many kinds and
superstition in many forms, form the kernel of the oldest religious ideas
among the Malays. Natural curiosities do not escape the notice of the
' [That some traces of it remain appears in a letter from a missionary's wife, published in the Daily News
of 4th December 1894, just before the last French invasion, where the writer mentions that " last Sunday
morning, at the Palace Church, the Queen herself got up and addressed those assembled— her courtiers,
soldiers, etc. — and led them in earnest prayer."]
468
THE HISTORY OF AfANKIND
Malay, but his observations only serve to people Nature with spirits pro-
ceeding from his animistic cult, and to procure amulets or fetishes in objects
arousing veneration or fear. Every object found in a place where it would
not have been expected becomes an amulet ; the hunter prays to a stone in the
road, " Help me to catch pheasants to-day," and if his prayer is heard the stone
becomes a fetish to him and all his village. Any stone or object like a stone
which is found in the entrails of fish, birds, buffaloes, or men, any resinous growth
on a tree, any shell or root, in short, anything striking or peculiar, is made into a
fetish. The demand ever new, ever active, sharpens the eye, nor are portable
objects only considered ; mountains become dragons, and monsters solitary rocks,
and all mountain -tops are the places where spirits dwell ; in the craters of
volcanoes the penalties of hell are carried out. We are told that in Celebes
mountain heights formerly used for human sacrifices are specially esteemed.
Forests are regarded as the seats of evil spirits ; when a clearing is made the
last tree is left standing. In reaping, a patch of rice which, perhaps, has been
sown on purpose, is allowed to remain because it does not do to drive the spirits
to extremities. In Celebes terrible tales are in circulation
about gigantic serpents which inhabit the peculiarly-shaped
summit of -Sinalu, while in the north of that island every
cave passes as the abode of one spirit in connection with
which we may think of the use of caves, mountains, and
forests, as a place of burial.
Races which otherwise have no knowledge of idols erect
stone or wooden monuments for the souls of ancestors.
Before these clumsy figures oaths are administered and
sacred operations performed, while offerings are laid in
their navels. The Pangulu-Balang, the stone image of
the Battaks, has no doubt often long ceased to be an
ancestral image so far as its worshippers are conscious,
for with the growth of the commune it became the tutelary
spirit of the whole kampong. Although the soul immedi-
ately after death came back and dwelt as tutelary spirit
in a place where no one was allowed to sleep according
to the view held in Ternate, later on it retires with other
souls into the spirit-house ; then if the old images leave
prayers unfulfilled they can readily be replaced by new
igorrote ancestral image— one- ones, though at the Same time they are not destroyed.
twelfth real size. {From a i • i i r • ■ i i
Dr. Meyer's Collection.) Accordmg to the degree of veneration a-ssigned to them,
they receive offerings monthly or annually, in the latter
case with great ceremonies. It is only on this day that they will answer
prayers, for the rest of the year they may be ignored. Graves count uni-
versally as holy places, they are avoided since it is unlucky to step on them,
and revisited in order that the spirits hovering around may be implored to bring
luck. In the whole district of Minnahassa the only objects of a monumental
kind are stone coffins with richly sculptured lids.
If we inquire into the origin of the Malay idols or fetishes we usually come
upon these ancestral images. The Igorrotes of Northern Luzon make no
representation of their gods, but even they draw a couple of roughly designed
THE RELIGION OF THE MALAYS 469
human figures in front of their granaries to represent two famous ancestors, and
to them they confide the protection of their rites. In front of many huts in
Central Luzon, Hans Meyer saw a little pot with food set out, and often also a
little bench for the anitos to rest on.
Among the Battaks these idols are made of a soft stone, and often exhibit a
rudely worked head terminating in an irregular pointed base a foot long. If
the Pangulu-Balang is wanted to be especially powerful the Guru bores a hole in
the lower pointed end, fills it with a magic broth which he has concocted out of
the entrails and the nose, eyes, lips, and ears of a fallen warrior, and carefully
closes it up again ; in this way the Pangulu-Balang gets a soul. We may see in
this a survival of human sacrifices. These images are found in the houses of
Mussulmans no less than among the heathen. Carved sticks with figures of
animals twined round them serve the Battaks as standards in war and for driving
away diseases. If you listen closely you will be able to distinguish the humming
voice of the soul within the stick.
What little we know about the religion of the Negritos is also referable only
to the belief in souls ; they do not like to leave the wild places where the souls of
their forefathers dwell. They betray a great dread of the spot where one of them
has died. After they have covered the corpse lightly over and blocked the
approaches to the place of burial, they leave the place and communicate the
fact to the neighbourhood. Any one who ventures to tread the forbidden spot
is punished with death. The Lubus, who are at a similarly low stage, hear the
spirit depart at death with a soft hissing noise ; if any one departs without this
sound his spirit does not survive him. Among the Philippine tribes ancestral
spirits proceed from the souls of grandfathers, and while most anitos are harmless,
that of the village chief is dreaded.
The entire complicated psychology of the Malays may perhaps be regarded
as produced by a reaction from their ancestor -worship. The tendency to
multiply spirits, which ascribes to the man three or seven souls, partly indwelling,
partly external, but in connection with the inner life of the soul, must be based
on the need for linking with his soul as many things as possible. When we hear
that wicked souls require their form to be seven times destroyed before they can
be at rest, we are in presence of an obvious misunderstanding of the wanderings
of souls. People dread the wandering soul of the sleeper no less than the
liberated soul of the dead ; and to step over a sleeping man, or even to wake
him abruptly, passes for a serious injury.
Veneration of skulls, together with head-hunting, has a close connection with
ancestor-worship. The treatment of the heads often has at its foundation the
idea of acquiring a spirit for the tribe. For this cause the Sea-Dyaks of Brunei,
during months on end, devote special attention to the heads, speaking to them in
endearing terms, and giving them the tit-bits at every meal, besides jzW/^-leaves,
betel-nut, and even, according to Veth, cigars. The skulls are painted in red
and white stripes, or blacked with antimony, often, too, covered with tinfoil, and
the eyeholes filled with shells. Among some tribes these trophies are the
property of the whole village. The practice of treasuring the skulls of beasts,
especially of those taken in the chase, occurs in company with the cult of
human skulls, among the Mussulmans of Java no less than among the pagans of
Formosa. On the Negrito huts of Luzon the lower jaws of pigs may be seen
470
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
nailed up, and on the outer walls of those of the Igorrotes, the skulls of pigs,
buffaloes, and dogs.
All Dyaks are fond of setting up old jars, called blanga or iempajang, in
their houses as the most honoured form of decoration. No doubt they were once
reliquaries, and thus esteemed as the abode of a spirit. The custom reminds us
of the Buddhist veneration of cups and urns, and of the curious Japanese super-
stition, of holding in high honour pots which have grown to rocks at the
bottom of the sea. The pots and basins in the house of a chief in South-east
Borneo were worth at least 15,000
guilders, or £i2<iO; the most costly
were buried in the wilderness, in a spot
known only to the owner. The vessels
— green, blue, or brown — with figures
of lizards or snakes, imported from
China, are valued at 1000 to 3000
guilders. A new pot is dedicated with
dances, and the sacrifice of an animal.
In the Timor group the people of
Ombai esteem metal vessels highly ;
the copper mokkos being valued up to
1000 guilders, and the differences in
value depending on marks known only
to the natives. The vessels are some-
what in the shape of a stove, and are
used as musical instruments on cere-
monial occasions, being beaten by the
hand on the firmly fixed lid. Some
are pinched in at half their height
(which is from one to two feet), and
have handles. They consist of several
pieces, on which signs and figures are
embossed ; very old ones with cracks
are just those most highly valued. In
Ke and other islands, coarse Chinese
porcelain cups count as the most
precious family possessions, and are found in old graves. Every blanga has
its pedigree. According to a legend from Banjermassing, Ratu Champa,
who came from heaven and descended at Madjapahit in Java, caused these
vessels to be made of the clay which remained over from the making of
the sun, moon, and stars. From other versions we may conclude that the
maker of the sacred vessels is none other than Mahatara, the Almighty. Hence
they are propitious for the house where they are kept, and for their possessors ;
and here is the connection with the sacredness of the earth and of stones.
We shall remember the sacred coin-stones of the Melanesians. Also they are
protective against illnesses. Pots in which cannibal dishes have been dressed
are kept as mementos, and also those which have received the pieces of putrefying
corpses. In the Mariannes pots occur as the abodes of departed spirits.
Tree worship is deeply rooted in the mythology or cosmogony of the
Sacred jar, probably from Borneo — one-sixth real size.
(Leyden Museum.)
THE RELIGION OF THE MALAYS 471
Malays, and therewith a veneration and awe of any tree that is in any way out
of the common. On giant trees, or such as have got twined together, or shelter
white ants' nests, one is sure to find a little shrine in which offerings are brought
to the spirit. Stones are flung at an ill-shapen tree, or rather at its evil spirit.
Plants and flowers are brought as offerings ; while Hibiscus rosea and Dracmna
terminalis are themselves revered as good spirits, and made of use against evil
ones. Roots which good spirits indicate to magicians, afford them power
against evil spirits. The Rirong palm is planted on graves, and at the corner-
posts of newly-built houses. In the paddy-fields offerings are made to the
goddess of festivity; and the rice itself is addressed as though it were an
animated being. The development is
accompanied with usages suggesting preg-
nancy, and names of flattery are applied to
the rice when reaped, that it may keep well,
and, if sown, bring forth abundant fruit. In
the Sulu Archipelago the champai-tree, a
kind of michelia, sheds its abundant white
blooms almost all through the year upon
the graves. A special cycle of legends is
attached to the durian-tree ; in some districts
of the east it is crown property, and rights Wax figure of buffalo ; perhaps an amulet of the
of possession are expressed by the planting coiiectio^r^ '''''^ ''^^' ^''^' ('^™'"°""- ^^5'er's
of it. Among the Negritos of Luzon a
fabulous beast, with a horse's head, which lives in trees, is venerated under the
name of Balendik, as a being of a higher order. The casuarina-tree (chemara),
supports very various superstitions. In Java it is a bad sign if a chemara-tree
grows very well in the neighbourhood of a house ; but if the tree dies without
any external cause, the family will be fortunate.
Animals play a conspicuous part in Malay superstitions ; they are closely
linked to the world of men through the belief in the transmission, by way of
exchange, of human souls into beasts. Men and women who have not the little
furrow below the nose in the upper lip are regarded as being qualified for trans-
formation into tigers. Metamorphoses into vampires and pigs are also dreaded.
It is difficult to get at tigers who have human souls ; they do not like hunting
the tiger, who is spoken of as " grandfather " or the " old gentleman," so long as
he leaves the property of his worshippers in peace. Many villages in Japan possess
a village tiger, the matjan kainpong, who is fed on the offal of slaughtered beasts,
keeps the premises clean, and is identified with some deceased person. But if he
lets himself be caught attacking the village cattle or even killing an inhabitant, he
is hunted, and all the more pitilessly that a weapon dipped in his blood becomes
a valuable talisman. Crocodiles are treated similarly. Malay princes trace their
descent from them, and in Banca they are even held equal to the princes in rank.
For this reason, no doubt, the figure of a crocodile is commonly found on Malay
shields, in Talaut even in the shape of the shields. The cases are frequent in
which the soul, as a penalty for sins committed in life, is separated from the
body which rests in the grave, an exile for a time in an animal. Here, again, the
creations of Indian fancy have got a footing. There is a creature called
bujutronkeh which is a tiger in front, a roe behind ; the tiger when he looks round
472 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
sees the roe, and in tearing it tears his own body. A man who has in life acquired
property unjustly appears in this form. A man who has become rich by magical
means, after death takes the shape of a white cat. Covetous men and usurers
also are compelled to hunt in the form of pattering animals. There are lucky
and unlucky animals, the voices of which encourage or hinder. The Tagals
ascribe to an unknown bird, called tik-tik, the habit of calling the attention of evil
spirits to parturient women, who are specially exposed to their attacks.
Beast superstitions take countless forms. In Nias pregnant women must not
pass by places where a man has been murdered, a bullock killed, or a dog burnt
with imprecations, or some traces of the dying man or beast will be found in the
child. For the same reason, and others also, the Malays never stick a pig nor
cut it up if somebody else has not made a preliminary cut, nor will they kill a
fowl, and if they have trodden on a chicken and killed it, the faux pas must be
compensated for by sacrifices. They will not eat the eagle owl or the child will
have a voice like that bird. They will not take hold of a monkey or it will have
eyes and forehead like a monkey ; they will not eat of a pig that has been killed
at a funeral or it gets the itch. They will not eat the beetle of the era wood or
the child will be delicate in the chest, nor will they catch a baiwa fish or kill a
snake lest it should have weak digestion. They will not set fire to a field — rats
and mice might be burnt and the child made ill ; and for a similar reason they
will not put salt in the pig's food. A fine complication this ! As amulets, both
for enchantment and against it, teeth, claws — especially tiger claws, and the tarsal
bones are popular. In Java, fabulous stories are related about a monkey with a
human face that lives in the forests to the eastward ; any one 'who catches him
will be fortunate. From the shape of a pig's or fowl's liver it is sought to ascertain
how long one is going to live. The Negritos of Luzon make prayers to a large
serpent for good places to get yam and honey, and the Pampangos have snake
enchanters after the Indian fashion.
Our limited knowledge of the Malayan spirit-world does not allow us to
progress very far towards a classification of the countless spirits. In Halmahera,
a prince of spirits is Gwusuong or Pwusuong, the lord of all the Jinn, who dwells
unapproachable by men in Waurao ; in Ternate, the greatest of the Wongis,
Jo-Durian. It is, however, not certain whether the same gradation is everywhere
in force as among the Battaks, where the great spirits or Sombaons join on to
the gods. These have nothing whatever to do with the souls of the departed,
they are nature spirits with a limited circle of operations ; spirits of the mountain,
forest, and sea. Wherever Mussulman influence reaches, the notion of Jinn has
covered all degrees and kinds of spirits ; it is the fact that these races treat their
spirits very differently. The Battak thinks that he can settle with the inferior
crowd merely by dint of incantations and magic formulae. But since these spirits
are by far the most numerous, magic and incantations flourish to a high degree
and serve to maintain an exclusive caste of gurus, the master wizards and witch-
doctors.
The multiplicity of spirits gives individual romances to religion, according as
one or another spirit power comes to the front. The roots of these conceptions
are, however, few, the multiplicity lies not in the system but in a development of
the two or three fundamental ideas. But of these the higher are not accessible to
the mass of the people, who look upon the spirits whereon their hopes or fears are
THE RELIGION OF THE MALAYS
473-
based not as at a supra-sensual height but in a confidential proximity. Good
and evil spirits are regarded by the Malay as belonging to his own circle of exist-
ence, since he recognises in their activity no extraordinary intrusion of a foreign
world into his own.
If we are to classify the spirits according to their operations, the Sanggiang of
the Dyaks, the Yang of the Javanese, the Wong of the Moluccas are to be noticed
as good spirits in so far as they either do good themselves or can be moved by
sacrifices to oppose evil spirits. To this class belong all tutelary spirits in amulets
and sacred trinkets. In Java every paddy-field possesses its spirit, nor will any
man readily venture to sow or reap before a priest has offered gifts. Fortunately,
it is not a very difficult task to obtain a tutelary spirit. If a man has reason to
suspect a bagan in anything, he brings it to the guru, who goes with it to the
Talisman from North Borneo and ancestral image from Nias. (Dresden Museum. )
sacred place of the village where the Pangulu-balang stands, takes a sufficient
meal, and allows the spirit to enter into the object. There is also an enchantment
juice which, when dropped into the eyes, causes spirits to be seen ; lemon juice
with ginger and pepper is an important component of it.
While the mass of souls become good spirits, those of the unburied, or of
persons who have died abroad or by a violent death, turn to evil spirits. These
get the best offerings, even the harvest thank-offering serves to propitiate evil
spirits. They are much more sharply individualised than the good ones ; the
inhabitants of Java recognise an evil spirit of the wilderness whom they call aul.
Another one of a strange deluding exterior is the bilun-samak, a water spirit who
floats on the surface like a large leaf or a woven mat, and drags his victims below
Mentak, on the other hand, goes through the paddy-fields in the innocent form of
a little child to bring disease upon the plants. Where a woman is awaiting her
time the houses are carefully shielded against Kuntianak or Puntianak, a being ot
horribly distorted appearance, fires being kindled and sentinels with burning torches
posted. In the eastern islands the greater number of evil spirits seem to be
474 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
embraced under the notion of forest spirits, perhaps in contrast to the good
ancestral spirits who live about the villages. Evil spirits shun the light, and for
that reason arrows armed with wax tapers are shot upon their altars. To consecrated
water, healing properties rather than purifying are ascribed ; ill luck attaches both
to things and to men and must be exorcised by a change at least in externals.
For this cause it does not do to build into a new house material from one that
has been destroyed. Fancy, in its search for support, fixes upon a thousand
trivialities ; it holds a mirror before a conflagration that it may be terrified at the
sight of itself. When rain falls and stops suddenly a murder has been committed.
With unlucky men it is often not enough to change the name, they must transfix
a banana stem and cause all the ceremonials of a funeral to be performed with it
in their place ; then, and not till then, they can put their ill-luck underground. A
great part of Malayan festival rites have the propitiation of evil spirits for their
aim, the healing of the sick is the expulsion of an evil spirit, and on a journey
from the Tobah plateau to the lowlands of the coast, which teem with fever,
offerings are made to the spirit of the ague. In the permanent places of sacrifice
to the evil spirits, food is set out as in the shrines of the souls, and the ghosts are
fumigated away by children with onions or sulphur.
The countless portents of death point to a life passed in a state of fear ; to
these belong, among the Dyaks, the sight or the cry of an owl, snakes coming into
the house, the falling of a tree in front of any one, a singing in the left ear, but
most especially an abrupt change of mood.
Invisible spirits fill up the gaps which intervene in the substances of visible
things. To them belongs in Javanese superstition the great race of the Jurigs ;
when the other spirits have left a spot unoccupied you may be certain of finding
Jurigs. They become visible only occasionally as tigers or fiery serpents, actually
they are evil spirits. A milder form is found in the Ganderuva and Veves, who
are equally indigenous to Java ; mischievous cobolds, male and female, who
torment men invisibly, most commonly by throwing stones, but also by bespatter-
ing their clothes with saliva dyed red by betel-chewing. Resembling both these
the Begus are conspicuous among the Battaks, all the more that their spirit world
is otherwise completely embodied. They are like a breath or bodiless air, to
them belong the invisible spirits of disease, the only visible Begu is the dreaded
Nalalain, the spirit of strife and murder, who may be seen creeping about in the
evening with fiery eyes, long red tongue, and claws on his hands. Apparently
resembling him is Swangie, the most dreaded of the Burungs of Halmahera, the
evil one who creeps on the earth. The Begus even try to take possession of
corpses, and the incessant sword -strokes of the Ulubelang, or champions who
surround the coffin in a funeral procession, are directed against them.
Amulets, through their connection with a political function, acquire a higher
religious importance. When possessed by ruling families they become a kind of
regalia, and the veneration paid to them increases therewith to an unlimited
degree. In Celebes one may hear the title of prince applied to little village
chiefs, or to members of families that have long ceased to rule. These people are
the possessors of venerated trinkets ; in a sacred house of this kind a little basket
or casket stands upon a table carefully covered with sarongs, and beside it
fumigations are burnt and tapers are lighted. Then you will discover on the
wall or on the floor weapons and other bric-a-brac, and lastly, two or three copper
THE RELIGION OF THE MALAYS 475
pots, one with boiled rice, another witli sirili leaves, and the apparatus necessary
for chewing them, but, what is contained in the basket or the casket it will
assuredly cause death even to look upon.
In these sacred objects the people take refuge in all dangers and adversities ;
fowls, goats, buffaloes, are offered to them, they are sprinkled with buffaloes'
blood and drawn round in procession ; oaths sworn upon them have more value
than when taken on the Koran. At the same time their requirements are
considerable ; when they are taken round, every one who has heard of it must
join the train, whoever delays to do so is punished. The penalty goes on the
principle of a deodand to the owner of the relic. If the opposition has taken the
form of active hostility, the person concerned used in former times to become a
slave of the ornament, often with his family and relations. A female slave who
invokes its protection becomes its property, the former master loses all rights.
Land to \\'hich there is no heir falls to the ornament. And what are these
trinkets ? amulets with the political stamp upon them, or, as we may say, state
fetishes. The veneration of them comes down from a time when a number of
small independent kingdoms still existed. In many parts of the archipelago the
tale recurs of princes who found an article of gold, in Ternate a whet-stone, which,
being revered as an amulet, attracted so many visitors that they passed it on until
it came into the hand of a poor prince and multiplied the number of his subjects.
Thus also, as the tale extended, the first settlement, which contained an amulet
that it had brought with it, retained its hegemony and its kingdom increased.
This crude amulet-religion takes on a more refined form in the west under
the influence of foreign civilization. Relics, traditional possessions, and texts from
the Koran, take the place of roots and stones. The best of all are relics of
weapons— especially when they have given some one his death wound, trinkets,
precious stones, such as the grey diamonds of Matapura, known as " souls of
diamonds," especially when they have formerly served a similar purpose. Old
stone axes, so-called " thunder-bolts," are distinguished into male and female, and
regarded as having great magic powers. Texts of the Koran written on paper
afford protection against spirits and bring good luck; they are rolled up and
carried on the head or about the body. Other texts quickly bring wealth or
protect the house against evil influences. Little models of houses, often with a
serpent in the doorway, pass for "medicine " among the Dyaks, and so, too, wooden
figures of crocodiles and other animals. _
Magic has assumed a scientific character in the Ngilmu, which places in the
hand of the adept a weapon of unlimited power. Ngilmu is the art of astrology,
the art of love philtres, the art of growing rich, and stands towards rapal in the
position of science to handicraft or theory to practice. In this sense the Javanese
are the most science-loving of all people. Ngilmu is in general the art of stealing
with impunity, but it would be rapal if a habitual thief put the inhabitant of a
house to sleep by magic. If a rapal does no good it is a fraud and is flung
away, but the ngilmu remains always of value. The name is applied also to
Mussulman occult science, the very highest of all is taken from the Koran. The
man who can say why the breath is called breath, what it is called by day and by
night, at expiration and at inspiration, whither it goes at death and where it
remains, has acquired a share of ngilmu. The reason why it is only taught to
particular trustworthy persons is the fear that if all had learnt it it would give
476 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
rise to many misunderstandings. The temples would fall to ruin and the power
of the princes would be shaken.
Theology is neither so rich nor so clearly systematised as the doctrine of
spirits and ghosts. The three head gods Batara-guru, Gori-pada, and Mangala-
bulan, exist for the multitude mainly in theory ; the Battaks, for example, dealing in
practice only with spirits. They appear in more distinct form only where religion
assigns to them functions which transcend those of the spirits, where thought
finds itself led in the direction of cosmogonic problems, or where the whole troop
of individual ghosts is no longer of any avail. On specially important occasions
affecting the whole people there is even capacity for prayer to the highest god,
the creator of the universe, such as by its earnestness favourably impressed even
the Christian missionaries. The name of the supreme being occurs also in grave
oaths. Islam has made very little alteration in this ; in the district of Holontalo,
for example, the prevailing religion is the Mussulman, but the old heathen usages
and customs lie unaltered at its base. Just as formerly the Hindoo religion
repressed the native belief in the gods of the house, the field, the forest, ancestor
worship, the motherhood of earth and the fatherhood of the sun, so in the later
centuries Islam has suppressed the worship of the sacred fig-tree and of the
Brahmanical gods and goddesses, yet not without absorbing much of the old
customs, so that any attempt would be in vain sharply to distinguish the three
layers. The tutelary spirits are frequently called the returned souls of heroes or
ancestors, and when we find every village in Timorlaut worshipping its patron
spirit in the form of a wooden human figure we are very near to the deifying of
men. In some historical cases the process of deification is clearly enough to be
recognised. Sir James Brooke freed the Dyaks from the oppression of the
Malays, but the Rajah desired nothing for himself in return for the blessings he had
conferred. What could move him thereto unless he was something more than an
ordinary man ? Wallace was pelted in out-of-the-way villages with questions
whether Brooke was not as old as the hills, and whether he was not able to call
the dead back to life.
The supreme being is so far away from the people that they can hardly assign
a name to him. A lower deity, or an imported one, such as the assistant creator,
Batara Guru, or wherever Islam has spread, a deity of a Mussulman type, could
easily be exalted to the vacant place. The names Lubulangi, Kabiga, and
Malyari, applied to their supreme beings by the people of Nias, the Ilamuts, and
the Zambals respectively, remain unexplained. Among the Ifugaos of Luzon,
Kabigat appears as the son of the supreme deity Kabunian, from whose inter-
marriage with his sisters mankind sprang. Designations like " the lord on high "
are general. Sexlessness is his attribute ; and the faithful maintain that his great
distance hinders him from hearing prayers. Elsewhere, among the Tagal tribes
of Luzon, a goddess comes up as the daughter of the supreme pair of deities, or
as the wife of the chief god, in cases where the chief god is represented as married.
The Catalangans even recognise two supreme couples. The deity of Halmahera,
on the other hand, is spoken of as a single being ; he taught laws to the wise
Gusongs, who are called his messengers, and they in turn taught their disciples,
and straightway vanished. Among the Dyaks there is a supreme god, Tupa,
who governs the thunder and lightning in heaven, but is not prayed to ; another,
Sanggiang Assai, metamorphoses a woman into a white rock.
THE RELIGION OF THE MALAYS
477
Batara Guru is prominent in Hindoo-Javanese inscriptions with all the
attributes of a god regarded as supreme. This pre-eminence never interrupts
the polytheistic basis, but the Devas take a place behind him. Next to him
appear as the most important gods, Surya, the sun, and Kalamerta, the god or
goddess of fertility and death. His position as the chastising god, the statement
that he appears on earth in the devastating storm, that he fights with the fire,
bring into prominence his resemblance to the Hindoo Siva ; but in the Javanese
travesty all his destructive tendencies are whittled down to the point of insignificance.
In other evidences of Javanese Hindooism he takes rank behind the distant
universal god in the position of an intermediary, in which he completes the
creation, assigns their places to the god of the polytheistic crowd, and rules
them and the earth. In this position he is ancestor alike of the lower gods and
of men. But the Dyaks of South Borneo distinguish Mahadara Sangen — the
ancestor of gods — from Mahadara Singsang, the ancestor of men ; while among
the Orang Benua, the creation, even that of mankind, was all seen to by the
supreme lord, who dwells out of sight above the sky. Once on a time he broke
the shell wherewith the earth was enclosed, so that the mighty hills, which now
hold the fabric together, rose from the depths ; on it he placed the first human
pair in a frahu, which drifted about on the water for a long time. Between
Pirman and human beings stand the Jinn — the most powerful of them the earth-
spirit, Jinn Boomi who sends sickness. Subordinate to him are the spirits of trees,
rivers, hills, etc. More recent researches have brought to light the Sivaitic basis
of Batara Guru, and his points of agreement with Buddha, but have at the same
time kept firm hold of the fundamental Malayan character declared in his position
as creator and maintainer of the world at the head of a few high deities. Imported
gods assume a national character even where Indian traces are still pretty clear.
Padi Allah and Nabi Mohammed, sprung from Islam, have joined their company.
A goddess appears in Borneo under the names of Kaloe, Kalue, Kloe, who
dwells in the nether world, and at one time protects the harvest, at another is of
mischievous significance for pregnant women and new-born children. She has
been compared with the Proserpina and Lucina of the ancients. The Javanese
serve up offerings of food and drink in the sacrificial shrines to this protectress of
the paddy-fields, adding thereto a mirror, a comb, and fragrant oil ; since the
daughter of the gods has the reputation of being vain. The Igorrotes organise
head-hunts to please her. The connection of the feast of purification or atone-
ment, with the harvest-customs, looks as if the powers invoked from below to
further the increase are sent back propitiated to the under-world. The god of
war, too, is brought into connection with plants. In Halmahera the oldest man
repairs into the forest, to a tree in which a hole has been bored, and summons the
spirit to mount upon a litter. Here food is offered to him, while the company
perform the war-dance. Similarly, in Ceram, before a war a procession fetches
" the spirit of the sacred tree " from the forest, and when the war is ended bears
him solemnly back. To this, too, Polynesian parallels are not wanting, as a refer-
ence to p. 326 will show.
The female spirit of the ocean rises pre-eminent above the ordinary spirits.
She rules not only the sea but also far inland the cliffs and the caves, Javanese
legend makes her the daughter of a ruler of Padjajaran whom her father cursed
because she rejected all suitors. Banished to the south coast of Java and attacked
478 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
by a painful disease, she vainly besought the gods for help. Finally she prayed
to Siva the annihilator ; the evil spirits caught her up, hurled themselves with her
into the sea, and the demons at the bottom of the sea elected her their queen.
Her favourite place of residence when ashore is a cave on the Oopack River ; for
her use also mirror, comb, and oil are set out. Her sister is ugly, deaf and dumb,
albino, and was carried away by traders from a desert island to which she had
been banished. Among the Battaks too there are sea spirits called also Nagas ;
in rank they stand on a level with the highest sombaions and are the children of
the deity. On the Tobah lake a couple of these Nagas are highly revered by all
who come there ; the male dwells near the shore, the female in a dry stone house
at the bottom in the middle of the lake.
The sun and the moon appear as great divinities, the stars as their
offspring. When killing an animal the Negritos fling a piece heavenwards crying
out at the same time, " This too for thee " ; and they sacrifice pigs to the thunder.
In Timorlaut the chief deity is transferred into the sun while his female comple-
ment resides in the earth. For a lunar eclipse, as the saying goes the serpent has
eaten the moon, the temples are decorated and young girls have to lament the
dying of the moon while the bystanders laugh and joke ; noise is also made to
induce the monster to disgorge. In the moon they see a tree which is either a
phantom of Allah or a cloudiness brought about by the angel Gabriel. Sun and
moon were originally of equal brightness, falling stars are called shots from the
bow, the morning star the day's tooth. In the rainbow the Mussulmans see a
strip of Satan's mantle, and the Negritos offer prayers to it as to the thunder, while
in Ternate it is believed to increase the number of fish.
Earthquakes result either from the shaking of the giant bull on whose horns
the earth rests, or from the writhing o{ Naga, the same serpent who causes the eclipses
of the moon. Subterranean fire is embodied in evil spirits, from whom a beneficent
bird in Ternate called leo steals the fire in order to bring it to men, although he
singes his wings in so doing.
Mythological elements are copiously represented both in the dynastic legends
with which the pre-historic period is filled, and in beast legends also. Swan maidens
stand at the foot of the family tree of Ternate ; Skarbas, one of seven winged
heavenly sisters, was surprised on her way to the bath by a prince and bore him
children who afterwards reigned in Ternate, Tidor, and Bachan. In one variation,
given by Valentyn, it takes the following form : the kings of Tidor and Bachan
were born from dragon's eggs, and for that reason the sultan of Bachan bears the
figure of his dragon ancestor. A more commonplace version of the family legend
is that in which a princess of Ternate having been wooed by Tidor, but found not
to be a maiden and accordingly sent adrift on a raft, became the ancestress of the
royal family of Bachan. There is a legend, going still further back, according to
which the first prince of Lolada came into existence with the beginning of the
first rustling of the wind. He arose from a tree stem which good spirits drove
from the shore, and is therefore called " he who came out of the water." The
forest-dwelling Bajus believe that the hero son of the realm of Padjajaran will
some day take them back again when he has descended from heaven, to which he
went up.
After death the souls go into a future world, where there is what is called by
the Dyaks " Sabyan," a city of souls ; by the Alfurs of the Eastern Islands
THE RELIGION OF THE MALAYS 479
" Soroga " or " Sorga," a house of spirits. The first aim of the great funeral feasts
is to facilitate the soul's way thither. The soul is not tied to that spirit home,
indeed its stay there seems to be limited. Thus the Maanjans say the soul
returns again after seven generations. ' If a woman with child has a longing for
a sour fruit, it means that a soul from the next world wishes to enter into her in
order to be born again as a man. They believe, further, that a future state is
like this world, and a supreme god, Apu, has power over all spirits and exercises
unlimited rule in the invisible world. There is a good spirit who is
either son of the supreme god or a beautiful woman. To his care
all souls are entrusted at the funeral feast, and he escorts them
into the next world. The way thither leads over the sea, and
therefore coffins are made in boat form, and toy boats are set near
to the grave-. The sea is also conceived as a sea of fire under
which a road goes. To meet the dangers which beset the entry
into Paradise a man has weapons given to him, and, if he was a
person of distinction, a suite of slaves. Means of bribery must also
not be lacking. In the middle of the narrow path stands the great
savage dog, Maweang, and woe to him who is not provided with a
little telak bead. The exaggerated expense of the boisterous funeral
processions, by which many families are ruined, are supposed to
be of benefit to the dead person, who indeed, among the Dyaks, has
already in his lifetime caused the clothing and equipment for his
corpse to be prepared from the most costly material ; only slaves are
buried without singing and noise. The souls of the Igorrotes travel
to two places, he who dies of a natural death goes northward to
Cadungayan ; here the souls dwell in a forest, the trees of which turn
to huts at the approach of darkness. They also possess gardens
and draw their sustenance from the invisible component parts of
animals, from rice, and from the offerings of their relatives. For
this reason, also, in North Borneo some sago palms are felled for
every person who dies, and the wine which the living drink at the Rosa^ry^ wit^i
funeral feast serves equally for his refreshment. The man who Madagascar —
commits robbery and murder without reason is punished there if he °f^^ ; '^^j^gj^^f^
has died without undergoing a penalty, and punished too by being Museum.)
pierced with a lance by another soul. But the souls of all those
who have lost their lives by a spear wound or in any other violent manner, as
well as women who have died in child-birth, arrive at a more desirable place,
the residence of the gods. The Malagasies hold that their souls go into the air
or on to the mountain, Ambongdrombe in the Betsileo country, which excites fear
with its cloud-wrapped summit and the roaring of the storms. In their language
we find echoes of a better hereafter ; dead people are said to have gone to rest,
among the Hovas indeed to have become divine.
The amalgamation of Indian, Chinese, and Mussulman notions with the
inherited religion has had the effect not of clearing, but rather of increasing
and confusing the vast body of superstitions. In the mythologies of the
Indian Archipelago, which have adopted elements from Buddhism and Brah-
manism, there appear reminiscences of ancient Phoenician and Babylonish
conceptions as well as affinities to those newly learnt from Polynesia. Just
48o
THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
as, even in progressive Java, the old cult of souls and a natUre-worship without
limits have maintained themselves side by side with relics of Brahmanism and
hundreds of thousands of Buddha-worshippers, so do the more refined forms of
astrology and necromancy stand with every kind of intervening stage beside
crude superstition. The talent for religion which we extolled in the Polynesians
is also characteristic of the Malays. Just as in the Archipelago hundreds of
Rainitsontsoraica — a Christian martyr in Madagascar. (After Ellis. )
thousands have become fanatical Mussulmans, so has Madagascar become,
through the Hovas, a very stronghold of Christianity in the East ; for all
the Hovas, to the number of 800,000, have become professed Christians.
The fact that the majority are Protestants, and the Catholics numerically
weak in comparison, was a main reason of the inefficiency of the first French
" protectorate."
Since among the lower races the influence of the priestly class is proportioned
to the mass of superstitions, we may decidedly anticipate that the priests
will here hold a conspicuous' position ; even though the endless subdivisions
of religion, by allowing no central form of worship and no hierarchy, organised
THE RELIGION OF THE MALAYS 481
as a unit, to grow up is outwardly detrimental to their status. The Igorrote
seers are usually the boldest and most cunning scamps of their tribe, who
utilise their influence for the filling of their own stomachs. The only mark
of their profession worn by them in their religious functions is a necklace of
alligators' teeth or boa's tusks. Their ceremonies consist of grimaces, dislocations
of the joints fit to make your hair stand on end, and mimicry of what they
have seen the missionaries do in divine service. Among most of the Dyak
tribes they are notoriously immoral. Another bad sort of priests are the people
who profess to have come down from heaven. These are men and women of great
influence, who have often become politically dangerous, when they have given
themselves out as descendants of ancient princely families, and have appealed to
the sympathies of the mob.
Among several tribes in Borneo and the Eastward Islands priestesses form a
highly developed institution, which has been imported by the Dyaks to the
genuine Malays. The Vadians of South-east Borneo, with a presiding Vadian at
their head, a dignity which passes by inheritance from the mother to the daughter,
represent a purer form than the Blians of the true Dyaks, who are at the same
time occasionally loose women. Among the Maanjans any woman is free to become
a Vadian, but she has to pay a fee to learn the correct phrases. It is only upon the
greater festivals that a special costume is worn ; the head is adorned with a frontlet
with tinsel sown upon it, while a sarong fastened across the bosom is held together by
a girdle. On forehead, cheeks, nape, breast, calves, and shins, round spots, crosses,
and stripes are drawn with rice meal, and two bells in the fashion of amulets adorn
the arms. Besides this the younger Vadians wear in their hair the lancet-shaped
leaves of a palmetto, supposed to have sprung from the ashes of a deceased member
of their body ; at other times their dress is simpler. The form of their conjuration
is everywhere alike ; the elements of their action are ecstatic dances, the sacrifice
of a fowl, and, where a sick person is to be healed, the extraction, cleansing, and
re-insertion of the soul, for all which they are prepared by fumigation with aromatic
herbs which are laid under their sleeping-places. . In order to reinforce the con-
juration in cases of sickness the Vadian in Celebes dances on a narrow plank ;
her movements in this are so energetic that any one must wonder at her power,
—the sweat falls in great drops from her face, which is contorted in such a way as
to portray physical strain and convulsion. These women are considered to be in
close relations with the spirit of the earth. Patients suffering from slight disorders
are cured in great numbers together. If a disease spreads, general mstructions for
expiation are given out. In that case no bufl-alo, goat, horse, or fowl may be killed
in a district, no bamboo cut, no tree felled, no fruit gathered or crop harvested,
while at last even the penalties are increased for offences which hitherto have been
more leniently judged. The worst spirits of all can only ba approached at night,
and if all means fail one may see standing solitary at the cross roads some candles
beside a basket containing rice, sirih, and pastry.
In Halmahera children watch beside the meal of dyed rice set for the good
spirits, and on board ship a boy watches, having on one side of him the ingenious
water-clock and on the other the protecting fetish. Life is filled, fettered, and
penetrated with ghosts in such a manner that possession is not very far off ; no
epidemic, no sickness, no mishap, takes place without the tongues of men being
prophetically set in motion by spirits. On such occasions also the heaven-
2 I
482 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
descended ones crop up as deceivers, honest or dishonest ; a means of averting
misfortune is frequently revealed to some elect one in a dream.
No concentration upon special places of worship having taken place, real
temples are unknown though sacred places are numerous. Thus among the
Macassarese and Bugises the sacred objects of the tribe have a shrine of their
own as well as a special sacrificing shrine. In Halmahera, Tidor, and Ternate,
the shrine when a sacrifice of food is offered stands near the town hall, and
whenever practicable commands the entrance to the village and scares away the
evil spirits. In the villages of Sahu there are four spirit-shrines — one for male
spirits, one for females, one common to all, and one for the priest's oracular sleep.
Every Maanjan keeps curiosities calculated to have a religious effect in a little
shrine dedicated to the god of thunder. Sacrificial shrines are erected near large
trees and rocks, and at the entrances to caves. Every grave, too, is a place of
veneration, especially while it is new ; and finally, reverence is extended to whole
districts which are imagined to be inhabited by spirits, to dark forests, inaccessible
swamps, and certain thickly-wooded hills. Many things again must not be used
here if sacred to evil spirits, and not insulted if sacred to the good : they are pali
or fadi — unpermitted. Temples have been erected through Indian influence in '
the Malay archipelago whose magnificence astounds posterity, but they are to-day
forgotten and fallen to ruin. Islam has never reached this point, all it has to
show being some poor mosques ; these missigits; as they are called, are both
within and without extremely simple, usually put together of wood. The roofs,
thatched with reeds, are sharp, rising here or there three, four, or five feet above
one another like towers. Very seldom is a tower or minaret {ineinara) met with.
A drum summons the faithful to prostrate themselves in or out of the temples.
Everywhere by the entrances are found large water-pots for the customary
washing ; and inside the building a niche in a western angle points to the
direction of Mecca and of prayer.
Deaths and funerals are the occasions of great solemnities among the
Malays ; prayers are offered on behalf of the soul which is making ready for the
difficult voyage to the next world, or has already got there ; but above all,
uproarious and long-lasting festivities are celebrated. These have even power
to call the soul back ; for there is a kind of death which may be made to retreat..
Even among the poor Ilongotes, some few provisions for the journey into eternity
are laid upon the grave. At a subsequent ceremony, the mourners eat and drink
the victuals and palm-wine of the deceased. Among the Battaks, while the other
chief epochs of life — birth, maturity, marriage — pass without any very special
ceremony, the body of a dead person is the object of particular solicitude. In
Holontalo, for forty days after the death of a relative, wealthy persons run daily to
strew his grave with money and flowers. The semi-settled Dutch Dyaks announce
the moment of the soul's departure from the body by firing a cannon, while the
Sulus perform the obsequies to the accompaniment of a grisly show, the relatives
having previously lamented for the space of eight days in a hut above the grave.
Among the Milanos of Borneo, the friends assemble some months after the death
at a mighty feast and cockfight, which lasts three or four days and costs the life
of as many hundred cocks. The Alfurs of Halmahera celebrate their funeral feasts
for a month or more on end. Many a man is impoverished by them, and has to
go abroad to earn money, which he may spend later on at some new festival ;
THE RELIGION OF THE MALAYS ' 483
he may then say with justice — " The aim of my life is to perform my adat, or
customary duties."
Among some natives of Borneo also there are funeral feasts, seven days long,
at which men are sacrificed, or, if these cannot be got, buffaloes. Slaves are bought
for the purpose, dressed in the clothes of the deceased, and tortured to death. Some
wealthy persons, indeed, before their deaths, send some slaves on into the next
world. To these festivals belong the toping-g3.me of the Battaks, at which one
of the players sticks a bottle-gourd with two eyeholes in it over his head, while
the other covers himself over with a red cloth, and draws on a four-sided casing
of bamboo laths, open at both ends, and reaching from the navel to below the
arms. To the player's middle is attached a long movable pole, at the top of
which is fastened, with two strings, the head of a hornbill. This he holds in his
hand ; and behind he has a tail made of old clouts, so that his whole figure
suggests a hornbill. The two then play off their jokes among the company, ask
for sirih, and frighten the ladies. Sometimes one of the toping-^la.ye.'cs ties on a
wooden mask with the features of the deceased. In Nias it was usual to make
a slave swallow his master's putrefied flesh till he was suffocated ; then his head
was cut off and he was sent to follow him. At these feasts, buffaloes are tied to
a stake wreathed with boughs and flowers, and pierced through the heart with a
spear ; from the way in which the animal falls the Gurus prophesy good or ill-
luck to the kampong. The Sihongos of Borneo hold feasts for a week, and burn
a number of corpses, which are saved up from one feast to the next. As each
coffin is put into the fire, the priestesses raise loud lamentations. The ashes
are then placed in the family vaults, which stand on poles. Seven days
after the feast the concluding ceremony takes place, at which a phallic statue
is erected, and the participants smear themselves with the blood of the sacrificed
animals.
The Malagasies, too, fear to irritate the souls of the departed, if corpse and
grave are not treated with great ceremony. At least a bit of the dead person
must be buried as the law directs. The house of the deceased is visited by his
friends, and a large part of his oxen slaughtered before it, and .used for banquets
lasting for weeks. Music and dancing play an important part. The nearest
relations sit on the ground, by the deathbed, weeping ; while some keep flies and
evil influences off with fans adorned with scarlet. The women wear dark
garments of coarse material, and dishevelled hair. The corpse is borne to the
grave on a bier, accompanied by the mourners, with music and musket-finng.
It is usual to inter in a grave pointing north or east. When people die abroad
they are brought home for burial ; but if the body cannot be got, a bunch of
their hair is buried. Similar customs prevail among the Sakalavas. The corpse
is washed and fumigated with m^^^^-wood, thumbs and great toes are tied
together with fibres of rafia, and the hands laid in the lap ; clothes are laid as
an additional gift, and the dead man's iron implements are set up on the grave.
A curse is further pronounced on whosoever may have caused his death^ ihe
grave is marked by a heap of stones, or a single stone, block, or piUar Persons
of importance have graves of large dimensions, made, among the Sakalavas, ot
sandstone slabs, five yards in length and two in height. Passers-by enlarge the
heap by throwing stones on it. Among some tribes the heads of the oxen
slaughtered for the funeral carouse are stuck on poles near the grave ; while
4S4 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
among the Hovas we find little coloured flags on them. Chiefs are often buried
in the middle of their villages. Burial-places are always fadi; though in the
Hova country we often hear of plundered graves. Descendants like best to be
buried near -their ancestors. At the anniversary, the Hovas visit the graves in
mourning. •
Everywhere we recognise the fundamental idea of an interval being reserved
in which the soul may rest while preparing for its journey into the next world ;
as well as that of a return of the soul to the place where its body lies. The
modes of burial adopted are based partly on practical considerations, partly on
supernatural suggestions received in dreams.
Cremation occurs, but interment is more common. In Sumatra the bodies
are laid in a side chamber annexed to the grave ; among the Lampongs, the
grave is provided with a high cover, upon which a mound is made, and
two octagonal pieces of wood erected. In Borneo graves are found rising in
steps, with a platform on the top, crowned with a shrine, in which implements
belonging to the deceased are placed. Here it is usual to plant a si'rong-pa.\m
beside the grave, while in Halmahera a nosegay is laid at the head and foot.
Clouts are hung over the grave for the demon to play with. Interment among
the Battaks is different and simpler. Quite little children are buried under the
houses ; children below the age of puberty are laid away with little ceremony in
small coffins, in the family ash or bone-house.
With many tribes the interment is only temporary. After some years,
with the view of showing higher respect to their forefathers, they dig up their
remains and place them in an above-ground tomb, serving at the same time as
monument. This is the older practice, which afterwards was curtailed owing to
stinginess or indolence. Adults constantly receive a first funeral above ground.
The Alfurs of the east manage this in a simpler fashion than the western Malays.
In Ceram they tie up a person when just dead, often when dying, into a bundle
like a sheaf, roll him into the forest, and put him away among the branches of
trees, with the view of collecting his bones later on. Among them the wish to
keep the corpse at a distance is clearly apparent. Among the Alfurs of
Minnahassa also, the original practice was to wrap the corpse in bast and keep
it among the boughs of the tallest trees ; but the custom of burying in orna-
mented sarcophagi or tiwukar is said to have been introduced by another tribe
shortly before the arrival of the Europeans. Among the Battaks, on the contrary,
the body is wrapped in cloths and furnished with the usual presents, richer tribes
placing money on the eyes or mouth, that the soul may be able to buy some-
thing for itself on its way. After this the corpse is laid in a rough coffin,
usually a clumsy canoe, oars forming a present to be put into the grave. The
Maanjans even place beside the body all the objects of value to be found in the
house, and the Guinans present a wooden torch for the dark road. They also
often sprinkle the corpse with rice, salt, or camphor, and allow the blood of a
red cock to drip on it. The Dyaks dye the soles of the feet with turmeric, then
the cover is shut up tight, and the coffin is left standing some days amid the
lamentations of the priestesses or the old women in the hut, or under a special
shed, and food is set every night for the body, which often stays many years above
ground. The length of time depends upon the view taken as to the destiny of
the soul, as well as upon considerations as to the sum required for the final
THE RELIGION OF THE MALAYS 485
ceremony, and also upon the rank of the deceased. Among the Lampongs
chiefs are displayed in state on the 3rd, 7th, 40th, looth, and 'i 000th day, and
then every year, according to the day of death, funeral feasts are held, at which
spices, flowers, and other nice things are offered to the dead, and the coco-nut
cup with a cooling drink is hung over the coffin. The Alfurs of the Eastern
Islands offer the first-fruits of their fishery at burial places. Among the Milanos
of Borneo the custom is found of burying the coffin for three days with weapons,
«W/«-boxes, bronze cannons, money, and clothes, during which time the dead
man equips himself for his journey. But here, too, at least so much of a chiefs
body as remains after the process of decay is placed in an urn and put away in
a hollow post of iron-wood beautifully carved; since the wood of these
monuments is almost indestructible, they date from generations back. Some-
times the above-ground tomb takes the shape of a boat, as in the illustration on
p. 63. Many of the Battaks take little care of what remains after cremation.
Ashes and earth are swept up together and put into a round wooden receptacle
which is buried in the forest and little more trouble taken with it, only the spot
is kept tidy.
Among the Sihongos of Borneo there is another practice connected with the
preservation of the body which we meet with also in Madagascar. The coffin
is put on. a stage and a hole bored in the body, into which is cemented a
bamboo with its lower end in the orifice of a large earthen pot. Into this all
the fluid portions of the body as it decays are collected ; on the forty-ninth
day the pot is removed with great clamour. The practice of drinking the
contents, under the notion that the soul resides in them, has survived only in
traces ; pot and coffin are firmly cemented up, and remain in the house till the
funeral feast.
The period between the decease and the final disposal of the body which is to
give rest to the perturbed soul, is regarded as critical in every Malay village.
From the moment at which a shot, or muffled drum taps following at regular
intervals, announce a death, a village is unclean. At first the times of day are in
some degree inverted. Starting from the notion that the souls of the dead,
especially those who have departed suddenly or owing to a misfortune, love
to do mischief until the funeral feast is held and that the night is their day,
everybody who wants to leave the village must do so before sunrise ; if he goes
later he may speak to no one — everybody avoids him. The women veil their
faces and intone the death dirge ; the death is regarded as a loss for the
whole village, showing plainly the intimate connection of the tribe. For this
reason, also, great importance is laid upon the death taking place in the village,
and under all circumstances the body must be brought thither, and if this is not
possible, the clothing.
External signs of mourning are shaven heads, white turbans among the
Mussulmans of the Sulu Islands, the veiling of the head in the case of the mourning
women. Among the Maanjans the relatives must eat no rice for forty-nine days
— seven only if the mourning, is for a child' — but they must content themselves
with a grain of brown colour and unpleasant taste and smell. Names of dead
people are never to be uttered. Among certain tribes, too, even living people
never utter their own names, it is fadi, and if anybody inquires it, the reply is
given by some other than the person asked. It is quite a trait in the character
486 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
of the Hovas that they anxiously endeavour to avoid thinking of departed
persons. " ^
Human sacrifices were no doubt once universally connected with funerals.
Among the Milanos a slave was starved to death in the most cruel manner,
attached to the post of the sepulchre, in order that he might be all ready to attend
his master in the next world. At the toping-'^X^y of the Battaks in former times,
two slaves used to come on as performers when the coffin was already standing at
the grave ; in the midst of their buffooneries they were killed, their corpses laid at
the head and foot of the grave, and the coffin placed on the top of them. Hagen
even connects cannibalism with these rites ; the greatest insult was offered to a
person guilty of grievous crime, or to a mortally hated foe, by annihilating his body
in the most thorough and dishonouring manner possible, which would be by
devouring him. Doubtless, also, fear of the restless spirit of the slain may have
made the practice universal, so that by eating in common all might be bound
together as accessories.
END OF VOL. I
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